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MICHAEL J. REDDING 



Brochure of Irish Achievements 



IN 



Government, Art, Architecture, 
Literature and Poetry 



Mr M ig 



BY 



Michael J. Redding 



885 Park Avenue 

Corner of Howard Street 

Baltimore, Maryland 



July 

Fourteenth 
Nineteen 
Hundred 
and Thirteen 



J 

^v.^ 

^.^ 



Copyright, 1^13, by Michael J. Redding. 



^;? ^^ 



CONTENTS 



m it m 



Page 

FOREWORD 5 

GOVERNMENT IS 

ART 27 

ARCHITECTURE 37 

LITERATURE 65 

POETRY 85 



FOREWORD 

An Irish poem in assigning characteristics to 
different nations, says: 

"For acuteness and valor, the Greeks: 

ERUATA 

p. 7 Line 13 should be Murray's instead of Murry's. 

P. 38 Ivine 10 "^ive" instead of "gives". 

p. 40 After line 5 insert as heading "Assyria". 

1>. 5+ Une 17 that is from "Islay," Scotland. 

p. 131 Ivine 14 should read. "Arren More". 



lensiics 01 tne Ueltic mind, blended with an im- 
agination vivid enough to fill the soil just below 
the roots of the shamrock with sprites, and the air 
with spirits, make of the Irishman a being which 
cannot be appealed to, like the saxon, through a 
table d 'hote. For while his humanity compels his 
feet to touch earth, his spirit lives in illimitable 
space communing with eternity. 



FOREWORD 

An Irish poem in assigning characteristics to 
different nations, says: 

''For acuteness and valor, the Greeks: 

"For acquisition and excessive pride, the 
' ' Romans : 
"For thrift and application, the Germans: 

"For tenacity and dissimulation the English; 
"and 
"For impulsiveness, patriotism and sensibility, 
"the Irish." 

The quick impulsiveness and emotional charac- 
teristics of the Celtic mind, blended with an im- 
agination vivid enough to fill the soil just below 
the roots of the shamrock with sprites, and the air 
with spirits, make of the Irishman a being which 
cannot be appealed to, like the saxon, through a 
table d 'hote. For while his humanity compels his 
feet to touch earth, his spirit lives in illimitable 
space communing with eternity. 



FOREWORD 



He eats only that lie might live ; he prefers soul 
to surloin. 

He talks of food neither before, while, nor after 
eating; his table etiquette is hospitality seasoned 
with exquisite sensibility and spiced with spoken 
sunshine. 

Why should he talk of food, who, 

' ' Ne 'er distrusts his God for cloth or bread 

''While lilies flourish and the raven's fed!" 

While ever ready to protect the land of his 
adoption, and the birthplace of his children, his 
heart is ever crooning: 

"Yes give me the land where the ruins are 

spread 
And the living tread light o'er the hearts of 
the dead". 

His etherial nature banquets on the ancient his- 
tory of his country. 



FOREWORD 



He knew as a pagan, long before he got faith, 
his intuition told him, that God regulates the 
night's length by the planets, and he feels in the 
history of his country it is early morning, and 
the day orb of freedom must soon rise. 

It would take the vocabulary of Edmund Burke 
to do Ireland's genius justice, but posterity can 
glory in the race from which it sprang even with 
circumscribed limitations of expression. 

And if pride in ancestry, like a nation's glory 
in antiquity is a laudable feeling, I am proud 
of my grandfathers, on the distaff as well as the 
male side who made no mistakes in "Murry's 
grammer", and who had no brogue in the patois 
of "Gurth and Wamba", for like Richard I. 
(1175) they never learned the bartering trade- 
mark of the bargain counter, fit only to shop with. 



FOREWORD 



Which although supplemented as it is, with 
Greek, Irish, Latin and French, barely enables 
one to but half express his feelings of love, affec- 
tion, joy, delight, rapture, faith, hope, charity 
and contentment. 

The only outlet it gives the heart is to be 
sweetly mawkish, and the only vent for the intel- 
lect is to be smoothly dull. 

Edward Gibbon, whose great pen-picture of the 
"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" with 
its geographical accuracy and careful marshalling 
of every detail to give color and strength to his 
biased view-point used but 58 per cent, of English 
words. 

In England 's lagging, limited lexicon there are 
but two words of endearment, — ''Dear" and "Af- 
fectionate" — applicable alike to father, mother, 
sister, brother, cousin and friend. 



FOREWORD 



In this dearth of soul language, the emotions 
are in a "pent-up Utica", the imagination is 
caged, and the spirit trammeled in its tenderness 
and affection. 

Irishmen do not, cannot, think like Englishmen, 
and a mental thraldom must necessarily exist 
when forced to express Gaelic ideas with English 
idioms, which are but as a painted strawberry to 
a saucer of the real smothered in cream. 

And this condition appertains, in a degree, with 
an Irishman who can speak only English, yea and 
speak it well, but whose ancestors for thousands 
of years were Gaelic in thought, language and lit- 
erature. 

The few examples of Irish genius given in this 
opuscle, simply annotating, for my own pleasure, 
only show what might be brought forth by one 
with ability, untrammeled by trade, and with time 
untaxed. 



10 FOREWORD 



Montaigne says: that in the matchless polic;/ of 
Sparta, the land of heroes who won Thermopylae, 
the only one book-study absolutely enforced in 
Sparta was history: the men of Sparta well knew 
the power of history to enlarge the intellect, for- 
tify the mind and expand the soul: by it purpose 
is ennobled, courage is uplifted and solitude 
changed into a great communion with the past. 

Every Irishman, yea, and every Irishman's son 
should know by heart every flower of fact, culled 
from many gardens, and set out in this little book 
as a rosary of achievement in Ireland's past great- 
ness. 

"Virginius", the tragedy, written by James 
Sheridan Knowles equals any emanation of 
Shakespeare, who is outclassed in comedy by 
Sheridan's "Rivals" and "School for Scandal." 



FOREWORD 1 1 



Shakespeare, — the bard with the Norman- 
French name, with ideas and fairies imported 
from Ireland in his * ' Midsummer Night 's Dream ' ', 
and with the majority of the plots of his other 
plays borrowed from the Celtic genius of Europe, 
says, in an aphorism twisted, and borrowed from 
the ancient Celts: "Let all the ends thou aim'st 
at be thy country's, thy God's and truth". 

Well I may not hit the bull's-eye but here is for 

the aim. 

MICHAEL J. REDDING. 



13 



IRISH GOVERNMENT 

If the reader will kindly bear with me, I shall 
attempt, in a modest way, to portray Ireland 
linked with Art and Literature, from the most 
ancient times to the present day, and if not enter- 
taining, I hope it will be, at least interesting, to 
hear from unbiased authorities, for you will notice 
as I go along, that I call not upon one Irishman, to 
give evidence of the exalted niche in Arts, Archi- 
tecture and Poetry, which Ireland occupied 
hundreds of years before the Birth at Bethlehem. 

But why, it may be asked, turn the telescope 
on one small Island among the nations of the 
earth, a glimmer in aphelion, when numberless 
stars of the first magnitude, in periphelion, can be 
seen by the naked eye. 

Why should men lose themselves in a maze, to 
travel in the unsuccessful path of a small national- 
ity? 



14 IRISH GOVERNMENT 

When by keeping to the highways of the world 's 
progress, we can have pass before us in grand 
panoramic procession, the great Dominions and 
mighty Empires that impelled the material prog- 
ress which we now enjoy. 

Well, if man was all animal and lived by bread 
alone, material progress would be our measuring- 
rod, and the history of powerful kingdoms might 
act as a condiment and gratify the taste. 

But until we lose the lesson conveyed by the 
Son of Man in dealing with the Prince of Evil, 
whom He told on the mountain -top: 

"Get thee behind Me satan", the intellectuality 
of a people will count for more than the towers, 
temples, trade and treasuries of mighty Empires 
and colossal Kingdoms, which satan showed the 
Saviour. 



IRISH GOVERNMENT I5 

It is to small countries, then, that we must look 
for that intensity of national life, which has 
inspired all that is best in literature, poetry, 
painting, sculpture and music. . 

And the ultimate power of the artist lies in the 
spirit of local patriotism and pride in the race 
from which he sprang. 

The Irish Celt, or Gael is one of the oldest, if 
not the oldest people in Europe today. 

Their old home may have been upon the plains 
and valleys once occupied by the Medes and Per- 
sians, in the lands watered by those five rivers of 
the Punjab, which flow into the North- West of 
the Indus. 

Or, we may look for their old home westward, 
from the Indus to the Euphrates ; northward from 
the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian 
Sea, to the Caucasus, the Caspian and the river 
Oxus, of Asia. 



16 IRISH GOVERNMENT 

Or, it may be possible that the Phoenicians peo- 
pled Ireland, whose home was along the East 
Coast of the Mediterranean, and north of Palestine 

Or they may have come, as some think probable, 
from Spain, migrating by sea to the western coast 
of Ireland, long before the Visigoths, from north 
of the Black Sea invaded sunny Spain; long be- 
fore the Alemanni occupied the Rhine provinces 
and a thousand years before the Huns invaded 
Rome, Phoenician and Spanish ships anchored in 
Irish harbors. 

Moore happily expresses this fact in his song of 
Innisfail, with the ancient air of "Peggy Bawn", 
which translated means "Fair Margaret". 

But whether the Phoenicians from the banks of 
the Mediterannean, or the Milesians of Spain, peo- 
pled Ireland, or whence they came, or however 
early they came, the gift of genius was the splen- 
did contribution of the Irishman, to Government, 
Art, Architecture, Literature and Poetry. 



IRISH GOVERNMENT 17 

Let lis take Government first: 

Willi^ the American poet, says: "The inhab- 
itants of another country look upon the small 
space occupied by Ireland on the map of the world 
v/itli mingled wonder and admiration when they 
read the long roll of her illustrious sons". 

"The law vv'itli them was the law of the people". 

The Irish conception of an enduring state or 
Nation was a thousand years ahead of the times. 

Nine hundred years before the advent of Christ, 
Ireland had a National Legislature. 

When Saint Patrick first set foot in the island 
he found it governed by four pro\dncial Kings, 
with one chief sovereign. 

What ! says the man who has forgotten the day 
of small kingdoms, at the beginning of the Chris- 
tian era, four Kings and one chief sovereign to 
make laws for a country as small as Ireland. 



18 IRISH GOVERNMENT 

Forgetting the murderous English Heptarchy, 
of seven Kings, and Bede's history of England, 
which tells us that 700 years later (or in A. D. 
680) there were four Kings in England — Egfird, 
King of the Northumbrians; Ethelfrid, King of 
the Mercians; Aldhulf, King of East Angles, and 
Lothair,King of Kent; and completely overlooking 
the fact that if we use the title King in none but 
its governing sense, in which sense only, it applies 
to Ireland, we have here in Maryland twenty-seven 
State Senators, who are more potential than was 
any Irish King, and a Governor for an Ard Righ 
much more potential than was Brian Boru, the 
head King of Ireland under the Clan system. 

Born could take no land forcibly, the demeanse 
around his palace situated on the spot now oc- 
cupied by the town of Killaloe in County Clare 
on the river Shannon, was given to him by the 
Dalcassians, a brave and powerful clan, who oc- 
cupied the district now called the County Clare. 



IRISH GOVERNMENT 



This family of whom Mahon was one, being the 
brother of Born, had for generations given Kings 
to Thomond, and Mahon, himself, now became 
King of all Munster, both Thomond and Desmond. 

It may be of some importance to state that: The 
provinces of Munster and Leinster were not cut- 
up into counties until A. D., 1210. The province 
of Connought not until 1516, and the province of 
Ulster not until 1584. 

The Irish Clan system was essentially a pure 
democracy, in fact, it went so far as to include the 
initiative, referendum and recall, for each tribe 
was supreme within its own borders. 

It elected its own chief and could depose him, 
as they did, Dermod MacMurragh, if he acted 
against the laws of the commonwealth over which 
he presided 



20 IRISH GOVERNMENT 

The Irish had no hereditary class, ability alone, 
not family gave one Kingship in Ireland over a 
nation of free men. 

The Ard Righ or head King was the representa- 
tive of the whole national life, but his power 
rested on the tradition of the people and the con- 
sent of the clans. 

He conld no more impose a new law than our 
own President can, without the consent of Con- 
gress, and it was not possible for him to force a 
demand of service outside the law. 

Sir Henry Sumner Maine, Professor of Law at 
Oxford, says: 

"The basic feature and structural interpreta- 
tion of Ireland's brehon laws which fathered and 
fostered the accused being tried by his peers, was 
borrowed by England from which sprung trial by 
jury." And Magna Charta was stolen completely 
from Ireland without giving it credit. 



IRISH GOVERNMENT 21 

The fundamental liberties of the people were 
never encroached upon by these brehon laws. 

It punished crime wherever found and relig- 
iously protected the innocent when falsely ac- 
cused. 

The Brehons followed the natural laws of 
justice in their decisions, and their code main- 
tained its ground amongst Irishmen down to the 
beginning of the 17th century; and its spirit be- 
cause of its inherent justice is still alive in Ire- 
land. 

Above all, it recognized the family as the unit 
of society, and the home as the most sacred spot 
on earth, which the most powerful King dare not 
desecrate without a pre-paid passage of flight 
from Ireland to England, where the unclean could, 
and did get the ear of Royalty, as in the case of 
Dermod Mac Murragh, King of Leinster, who find- 



22 IRISH GOVERNMENT 

ing an Irish princess, Dearbhorgil, the wife of 
O'Bouark, willing to assume the character of 
Helen, the Grecian lady, thought he could play 
Paris with impunity but immediately found that 
Ireland, unlike ancient Troy, demanded from its 
Kings the same chastity which it ever found in 
its women; hence Ireland was not large enough to 
hold Mac Murragh. 

In the ultimate the people ruled and demanded 
the same brand of purity from prince as from 
peasant. 

They never lost their trust in the people, lieuce 
they never exalted a central authority for their 
law needed no such sanction. 

The code was for the whole race, while the ad- 
ministration of the code was divided into the 
widest possible range of self-governing communi- 
ties which were bound together in a willing fed- 
eration. 



IRISH GOVERNMENT 23 

And the force and strength of the union of this 
great people were not material nor military but 
intellectual, and far more exalted than the miser- 
able feudal system of the middle ages. 

Under the feudal system of Europe every coun- 
try was divided and subdivided into a vast num- 
ber of independent principalities. 

Thus in the 10th century France was parti- 
tioned among about a hundred and fifty overlords. 

All exercising equal and co-ordinate powers of 
sovereignty. 

Many of these lords were richer and stronger 
than the King himself, and if they chose to cast 
off their allegiance to hini he found it impossible 
to reduce them to obedience. 

The King's time was chiefly occupied in inef- 
fectual efforts to reduce his haughty and refrac- 
tory nobles to proper submission, and in feebly in- 
tervening to compose their endless quarrels with 
one another. 



24 IRISH GOVERNMENT 

It is easy to conceive the disorder and wretched- 
ness produced by this never ceasing turmoil. 

But the splendid (tribal) system of the Irish 
was most beneficial in the diffusion of a very 
high intelligence among the whole people. 

A varied education spread over many centres 
fertilized and enriched the individual man and ex- 
alted human nature in the Clan system by the 
administration of its own affairs, because a so- 
ciety must of needs be enriched with the life of 
opportunity involved in the participation of all 
the activities that go to make up a full community. 

It is, therefore, easy to understand why the 
Irish never would submit to the Norman feudal 
system, and why they so readily adapt themselves 
to the principles as exemplified by the govern- 
ment of the United States; being to all intents 
Americans as soon as they touch these shores. 



IRISH GOVERNMENT 25 

Their conception of liberty was akin to that of 
Americans today, and whether men be Irish or 
American they can all subscribe to these oft- 
qnoted words which have endeared Moore to all 
lovers of Liberty: 

' ' Far dearer the grave or the prison, 
Illumined by one patriot's name. 
Than the trophies of all who have risen 
On Liberty 's ruins to fame. ' ' 



27 

IRISH ART 

And now of Art: 

The most beautiful specimen of illuminated 
penmanship in the world today is the Book of 
Kells done by Irish writers, and now in Trinity 
College, Dublin. 

So expert were they in the art of drawing that 
they could form the Gothic arch without rule or 
compass. 

We know that Vulcan was a Grecian God; and 
the ancient Irish had their metal-god Goibniu, 
the Dedannan, who figures in many of the old 
romances. 

While the Saxons, Danes and Normans — all be- 
longing to the race of Northmen — were pursuing 
their regular vocation of ravishing, murdering 
and plundering the people of other nations in 
Western Europe, the Irish were engaged in the 
nobler occupation of spreading Christianity, art 
and learning throughout the world. 



28 IRISH ART 



For the truth of this statement we have the 
testimony of not only English historians, but his- 
torians of other countries. 

Mosheim, Protestant ecclesiastical historian of 
Germany, said: 

"Tiiat the Irish were lovers of Learning and 
Art and distinguished themselves in those times 
of ignorance beyond all other European nations. ' ' 

The Irish artists in Metal work were quite as 
skillful as the scribes were in penmanship. 

Professor Westwood, an Englishman, says: Art 
cultivated in Ireland and by Irishmen, known as 
Keltic, was absolutely distinct from that of all 
other parts of the civilized world; it attained in 
Ireland a perfection almost marvelous, and it was 
in after ages adopted by the Continental schools 
visited or established by Irish artisans. 



IRISH ART 29 



The ornamental patterns consisted of the most 
beautiful curves with interlacements, and the 
materials employed were gold, silver, bronze of a 
whitish color, gems, and enamel. 

Wonderful jewels enriched the great Church of 
Clonmacnois, embossed chalices and golden gob- 
lets carved in the most exquisite manner by Irish 
artists whose splendid work was admired in all 
parts of Europe. 

A great number of the beautiful articles made 
by those accomplished artists have been found 
from time to time, of which the most remarkable 
are the Cross of Cong, tlie Limerick Chalice, and 
the Tara Brooch, of the 6th century, all now to be 
seen in the National Museum, Dublin. 



30 IRISH ART 



When the Tara brooch was exhibited some years 
ago, ill one of the great London exhibitions it 
drew the eyes of all visitors. One English writer 
who examined it says: that he found a difficulty 
in conceiving how any fingers could have made it 
and that it looked more like the work of fairies 
than of a human artist. 

Mr. Ernest A. Smith, of the Royal School of 
Mines, London, says : No other country in Europe 
possesses so much manufactured gold belonging to 
early times; how much wealthier was Ireland than 
Great Britain may be imagined from the fact 
that while the collection in the British Museum 
of pre-historic gold from England, Scotland, and 
Wales together amounts to but thirty-six ounces, 
that in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin 
weigh s five hundred and seventy ounces. 

The art of stained-glass manufacture was 
brought to the very highest pitch of perfection. 



IRISH ART 31 



In one of the Churches in Kilkenny were very 
ancient stained-glass windows so superb in design 
and finish that hundreds of years later the Papal 
Legate Rinuccini offered $4,000 for the East win- 
dow of Kilkenny Church 

Mural decoration has suffered much from its 
lack of harmony with stained-glass color schemes, 
and artists have been baffled by the problem of 
making the windows harmonize with and, in fact, 
become a part of the interior decoration. 

Mr. Thomas A. 'Shaughnessy, a distinguished 
Irish-American artist of Chicago, after several 
years in endeavoring to find a means to overcome 
this difficulty in church decoration, has succeeded 
in making a window in which the surface mosaic 
effect of the window at night enriches the church 
interior as much as does the effect obtained when 
the sunlight shines upon and through the window. 



32 IRISH ART 



He is now engaged in making a worthy repre- 
sentation of ancient Irish art, working on a 
canopy 12iA feet by 16 feet for the sanctuary of 
St. Patrick's Church, Chicago, and has installed 
the first window made by this new process in St. 
Mel's Church, of the same city. 

Irish woolen fabrics and Irish laces of the most 
deli<iate texture and ornate patterns were cele- 
brated on the continent one thousand years before 
Columbus set sail for America. 

Centuries before the Norman invasion, woolen 
cloaks of Irish make were for sale in all the mar- 
kets of Europe. 

The Pope's collector was given special per- 
mission to carry away with him free of duty em- 
bossed mantles of Irish cloth, A. D. 1382. 

A Limerick cloak in its style and finish was 
a worthy gift from one great minister of Eliza- 
beth's court to another. 



IRISH ART 33 



Irish serge was used in Naples as trimming for 
the robes of the King and Queen. 

Irish serge was known in Bologna, in Genoa, in 
Coma and in Florence. 

It was famous in southern Spain. 

Irish friezes found a market in France. 

They passed up the Rhine; Richard II. gave 
leave to a Cologne merchant to export Irish cloth. 

At Bruges and Antwerp the Irish sold the 
famous serges, Irish cloaks and linen sheets. 

The leather of Ireland was also well known in 
France, Flanders, Bruges, and in England and 
Scotland. Belts and straps for spurs finely orna- 
mented were gifts fit for a poet's reward. 

Their fine and acute sense of color, in those early 
days, made their cloth dyes renowned. 



34 IRISH ART 



Much madder was grown in Ireland, a plant of 
the genus Rubia, and woad from the leaves of 
which a matchless and exquisite blue was ob- 
tained. 

Other traditional dyes were handed down, and 
Oatalonian manufacturers who rivaled the skill of 
the Florentines sought the secret of Irish colors 
as well as of their fabrics. 

The beautiful illumination of the Book of Kells, 
the Book of Mac Durnan, and numerous other old 
manuscripts, proves that the ancient Irish were 
very skilful in the production of colors. 

The readers of modern Irish history know that 
for the last one hundred and fifty years the most 
important Irish manufactures were by English 
law deliberately destroyed. 

Nevertheless, in spite of adverse circumstances, 
Ireland has succeeded in maintaining a position 
of excellence in the manufacturing industry. 



IRISH ART 35 



This is admitted by the most implacable enemy 
that Ireland has ever had, the "London Times." 
It says: 

"The world is, perhaps, so little accustomed 
to think of Ireland as a manufacturing country 
(as, indeed, it is essentially an agricultural one) 
that few people probably have ever considered the 
peculiarly high reputation which Irish made 
goods have won for themselves in a variety of 
lines. 

Irish embroidery, Irish knitted gloves and 
coats, Irish tweeds, Irish carpets, Irish linen, 
Irish lace and Irish ships, all as familiar to the 
public outside of Ireland as are the names of Irish 
bacon and Irish race horses. 

At Naas, Kildare, is made the sumptuous rugs 
(the orders being secured in competition with the 
world) for such hotels as the Carlton and Ritz in 
London, for other palatial hotels and great pri- 
vate houses in America, and for such steamships 
as the Titanic and Britannic. 



36 IRISH ART 



These Irish rugs are Irish designed, Irish dyed, 
Irish made and Irish finished. 

The figures given for 1911 of Ireland's export of 
manufactured goods reach the total of $135,000,- 
000. 

This under alien rule, gives the mind but a 
glimpse of what it will be under Home rule. 



37 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

And now of Architecture: 

Architecture is the art of investing a building 
designed for use, with interest, power, grandeur, 
unity and beauty, and that all these elements 
might exist and be harmoniously combined, the 
builder must have either the Greek or the Celtic 
gift of imagination. 

The many relics of structures left by primeval 
man have an archaeological, but no architectural 
value, such as the prehistoric Cromlechs of Ire- 
land consisting of one very large flat stone sup- 
ported by others which are uprig-'ht. 

For the beginnings of the art, grand even in 
their infancy — we must turn to Egypt. 

The oldest works of the Egyptians were the 
embankment of the Nile, the temple of Vulcan, 
and the Great Pyramid, the most gigantic work 
in the world — one which perhaps never will be sur- 
passed. 



38 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 



Next to the pyramids in massive grandeur 
eomes the Great Sphinx, its height from the plat- 
form on which it lies to the top of the head is 
100 feet, its total length is 146 feet; across its 
shoulders is 34 feet, and its head from the chin to 
the top is 28 feet 6 inches. 

It may be interesting to state that a temple was 
built between its paws. 

But the beautiful minaret and handsome dome 
which gives such a charming variety of outline, 
were unknown to the Egyptians, and their invari- 
able use of enormous stones for lintels, bespeak 
plainly their ignorance of the arch. 

Such is Egyptian accomplishments. 

What of Jewish Architecture I 

Jewish architecture is practically nil. Their 
long sojourn in Egypt and the fact that their 
chief employment there seems to have been the 
manufacture of bricks, unfitted them for either 
architects or builders. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 39 



On the conquest of Canaan, the Jews took 
possession of the dwellings of the vanquished peo- 
ple, without attempting to build any themselves. 

The construction of no important building 
stands to their credit till the days of Solomon. 
And at the erection of Solomon's temple at so 
low an ebb was the art of building, that the Jews 
did not even know how to hew timber properly. 
(I Kings V. 6.) 

Solomon therefore applied to a pagan, Hiram, 
King of Tyre, with whom he was on friendly 
terms, and that monarch sent an architect and 
staff of skilled workmen, to raise the first splen- 
did temple to the true God. Sad, but true, Phoeni- 
cian pagans from the City of Tyre built Solomon 's 
temple. 

This Hiram much improved insular Tyre, and 
in this respect was the Augustus of that ancient 
City, which was near the banks of the Mediter- 
ranean. 



40 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

The earliest Indian architecture is in fact rock- 
cut caves, supported on massive piers, but the 
people of India were fond of tower building. 

T'hey built a nine storied tower to commemorate 
the defeat of Mohammed of Malwa in 1439. 

In Nineveh are found fragments of great build- 
ings constructed chiefly of sun-dried bricks, these 
buildings are somewhat out of proportion, they 
have the striking peculiarity of being elongated 
beyond anything known in other styles of archi- 
tecture, some of them being 220 feet long by 25 
feet wide, remind one of Baltimore 's 12 foot front 
houses standing on a lot 100 feet deep. 

Persia in its ancient architecture we note the 
tomb of Cyrus, East of the head of the Persian 
Gulf, and 50 years later the chief buildings of 
Susa were constructed. Large portions still re- 
main and form some of the grandest ruins in 
existence. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 41 

The Doric style of architecture dates back to 

B. C. 650. 

Dorus, King of Peloponnesus built a temple to 
Juno in the ancient city of Argos, it was erected 
in the manner we now call Doric ; from its founder 
Dorus. 

The Ionic style of architecture dates back to B. 

C. 450. 

And the Corinthian style of architecture dates 
back to B. C. 350. 

These three latter styles are, as their names 
imply, Greek emanations. 

The exquisite beauty of fonn and tasteful dec- 
oration which pervade not only Greek buildings, 
but every article of Greek origin, whether coin, 
medallion, vase, implement of war or husbandry, 
or even the simplest article of domestic or per- 
sonal use, is evidence of their artistic ability. 



42 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

But the Greeks neglected, or were ignorant of, 
the properties of the arch, and if it was known to 
the Egyptians they certainly neglected it in their 
greatest works. 

It is not known who invented the arch. The 
Irish with their knowledge of Geometry could, 
and may have evolved the semi-circle, but who- 
ever did, and at whatever date, the Romans made 
extensive practical use of it, and by its means 
they succeeded in doing what their predecessors 
in civilization had never effected. 

It enabled them to carry secure and permanent 
roads across wide and rapid rivers, and to make 
brick more extensively useful than ever before. 

The Romans surpassed every other nation in 
road-building. 

But to the Greeks, however, the Romans were 
indebted for their knowledge of the more polished 
forms of architecture. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 43 

Before the conquest of Greece by Rome the 
structures of Rome appear to have been rude and 
inelegant. 

The Romans stole outright from the Greeks, the 
Corinthian style of architecture, and this style 
became to the Romans what the Doric had been to 
the Greeks — their national style of architecture. 

The temple of Vesta, at Tivoli, is built in this 
style. 

And like the Jews who got the Phoenicians from 
the City of Tyre to build Solomon's temple, the 
Romans got Corinthian Greeks to raise the temple 
of Vesta, the most beautiful example of the Cor- 
inthian order in existence. 

In speaking about the domestic and public archi- 
tecture of Pompeii we must remember that its 
beauty and glory is to be attributed to the fact 
that Pompeii was a Greek colony. 



44 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

The Romans copied their leading forms from 
the Greeks. 

True the Apse, and the circle on plane, the dome, 
and the arch in elevation were his. 

But he never dreamt of the pointed arch, or 
Gothic style of architecture. 

Hence, through Italy, Asia Minor, Sicily, 
France, Syria, Africa and England was built a 
Romanized style of Greek architecture, suitable 
to private, public or pagan purposes. 

The East modified to some extent Roman art, 
and this modification is known as Byzantine, of 
which St. Mark's in Venice is a splendid example. 

A hurried bird's eye view of the mainland of 
Europe will satisfy one that armaments not archi- 
tecture occupied the minds of men and that Ire- 
land in those times of turmoil was the only spot 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 45 

on all the earth that was peaceful enough to give 
birth to that religious style of architecture — the 
Gothic, with an aspect so holy that it is used but 
for worship only and within its portals one feels, 
as it were, the breath of God. 

From the days when the Romans called upon 
their gods to save them from Hannibal to the 
breaking up of the Roman empire, which was 
overwhelmed in the West by Odoacer, King of 
Heruli, a German tribe, and who was first to as- 
sume the title, King of Italy, A. D. 476 ; all Europe 
was a battle field. 

And the Eastern part of the Roman Empire 
ended with the capture of Constantinople and the 
death of Constatine XIII. in 1453. Drawing the 
contour of mountains and maps of roads, not Gothic 
or any other style of architecture, is the work of 
warriors. 



46 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

Theodoric, an Ostrogoth (eastern Goth) was 
ruler of Italy, and after his death in 527, Justinian, 
Emperor of the East came and ravished her fields, 
and with her cities in ruins was reunited to the 
Empire. 

But the Lombards, a barbarian tribe entered 
Italy in 568, and conquered the lower part of the 
peninsula which was again lost to the Empire, 

And the Lombards in turn were destroyed by 
Charles the Great (in 774), — burning, not building 
was their trade. 

The Visigoths (Western Goths) (in 711) were 
in the possession of Southern Gaul and Spain until 
their rule was ended by the Saracens in the 8th 
century. Swordsmen, not Gothic draughtsmen, 
were these. 

The Burgundians (in 534) were in South-East- 
ern Gaul and came into collision with the Franks 
on the north and were reduced by them to a state 
of dependence. They were familiar with the 
pointed sword, but not with the pointed arch. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 47 

The Vandals under the lead of Greiseric bore 
down upon Rome and sailed down the Tiber with 
heavy spoils of the ancient City. 

He did yield to the prayers of Pope Leo the 
Great, and promised to leave the inhabitants of 
the Imperial City their lives; but being Arian 
christians, robbery of the orthodox christians was 
to them more religious than building temples. 

The Franks whom Clovis united and laid the 
foundation of the French nation, became so weak 
after his death in (A. D. 511) that for a century 
and a half her inefficient rulers were contempt- 
uously called do-nothing Kings. The French in 
those days did not produce new styles of architec- 
ture, even in ladies hats. 

In Britain, when Rome withdrew her legions, 
in the 5th century, in order to protect Italy, Eng- 
land was submerged by hosts of Anglo-Saxon cor- 
sairs from the Continent. 



48 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 



And although the famous Celtic chief, King 
Arthur, made heroic resistance against the pagan 
invaders — the Angles, Saxons and Jutes — the 6th 
century saw the savage saxons successful. 

They set up 8 or 10 kingdoms euphonously, but 
inaccurately, called a Heptarchy, and amidst per- 
petual strife until the middle of the 9th century 
or 840, they slayed and murdered one another for 
supremacy. 

All Europe outside of Ireland was given over 
to war; worshipped Mars of the mailed hand, and 
had neither the inclination nor time to produce a 
style of architecture — the Gothic — which indis- 
solubly links architecture with religion. 

What architecture the English had previous to 
and including the 11th century was derived solely 
from Roman examples. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 49 

Saint Paul's, in London, the Church of which 
Macauley predicts, some New Zealander will view 
its ruins from a broken arch of London bridge, 
was not commenced until late in the seventeenth 
century (1675) and was not finished until the 
tenth year of the Eighteenth century. 

It was left for a christian people, on whose trees 
the Roman Eagle never perched — the Irish — to 
produce a style of architecture — the Gothic — so 
holy, even in its exterior outlines, that in passing, 
we lift our hat in reverence to the living God. 

The Irish were great builders, as we see by the 
round Towers many of which were built in pre- 
christian times, but not all, for some of them, in 
Ulster, owe their existence to Gobban Saer — Gob- 
ban the Builder — a distinguished architect born 
on the coast north of Dublin, who built the Round 
Towers of Antrim, and many others throughout 
Ireland. 



50 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

Aengus McNathamore, a distinguished Irish 
builder of the first century erected Dun Aengus 
the great fort of Aranmore upon the summit of 
cliffs 300 feet high. Its sea front measures 1,150 
feet, the walls are 13 feet thick and 18 feet high. 
This fort has been characterized as ' ' The greatest 
monument of its kind in Europe." 

Whether the Round Towers of Ireland were 
built for the emergency of war, or as an index 
finger pointing to omnipotence, they proclaim, like 
the great pyramids of Egypt, of their builders, 
that our early ancestors had an intimate acquaint- 
ance not only with square, plumb, compass, level 
and circle but attained the very highest proficiency 
in Geometry. 

The Englishman, Dr. Reeves, says, that "Gob- 
ban Saer's Church in the County Dublin, built 
with a pointed, or Gothic, arch in the 7th century 
received its name from this Irish architect. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 51 

On mountain cliffs, in valleys, by the waterside, 
on secluded islands, lie ruins of ancient Irish 
Churches, many of them small in size, but built in 
the Gothic style of architecture of which Grace 
Protestant Episcopal Church, on the corner of 
Park Avenue and Monument Street, in its size and 
outline, if put on the banks of Lough Neagh, 
Lough Corrib, or "by Killarney's lakes and dells" 
would be typical of the little buildings which pre- 
served for centuries an apostolic simplicity. 

In the dedication of these truly national 
churches no foreign saints were taken, only their 
own holy Irishmen were honored as patrons. 

Even Spenser, who thought it necessary to de- 
fame Ireland that he might, with better grace, laud 
Elizabeth, says: 

' ' Of hewen stone the porch was fairly wrought, 
Stone more of value, and more smooth and fine 
Than jet or marble far, from Ireland brought. ' ' 

(Spenser, Fairy Queen B. II. Canto IX vers. 24). 



52 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

One of the best historians of architecture, Mr. 
James Fergusson, when preparing the ground for 
his work of 4 vols., by a survey of the characteris- 
tics of different races in relation to his art, says, 
that : 

"The true glory of the Celt in Europe, is his 
artistic eminence: it is not too much to assert 
that without his intervention, we should not have 
possessed in modern times, a picture, or a statue or 
a church worthy of the name ' \ 

To the Irish Celts we are indebted for the most 
beautiful and religious style of church architecture 
in existence — 

The Grothic, with its pure pointed arch a style 
of arch unknown in Europe before it evolved from 
an Irish mind, for as you know the Goths, like 
the Huns and Vandals, tore down instead of build- 
ing up. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 53 

Many attempts have been made by Englishmen, 
to do away with the term Gothic, and call the 
pointed arch style British. 

In fact the British Society of Antiquaries, such 
men as Horace Walpole and John Carter have con- 
tended for the exclusive term English. 

But John Ruskin who knew as much about 
architecture as any other man in England, rather 
than rob the Irish outright of the honor, preferred, 
in true English style, to do an egg-dance around 
the subject. Listen to what he says, in "The 
Stones of Venice:" 

* * I am not sure when the word ' Gothic ' was first 
generically applied to the architecture of the 
North, but I presume that, whatever the date of 
its original usage, it was intended to imply re- 
proach. It never implied that its builders were lit- 
erally of Gothic lineage, and far less that the style 
had been originally invented by the Goths them- 
selves. ' ' 



54 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

It simply meant that it was foreign to the eyes 
of the Roman Empire which were used to seeing 
the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian styles of architec- 
ture all evolved in Greece, and considered every 
innovation the act of a people rude like the Goths. 

Now if Ruskin's racial antipathies had not im- 
pelled him to close his eyes and do an injustice to 
Ireland, he could have seen. 

Holy Cross Abbey, County Tipperary, built in 
1082, which is cruciform in design and Gothic in 
character. 

Or he could have examined 

Askeaton Abbey, County Limerick, and found 
it one of the finest remains of the Gothic style and 
of ancient art in Ireland. 

Or he could have gone to Scotland, and on a 
clear day he could have looked across the narrow 
channel, and see a splendid specimen of an early 
Gothic arch in 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 55 

Donegal Abbey, County Donegal, Ireland, (15th 
Cent) 

But lest, Holy Cross, Askeaton, and Donegal 
Abbeys, built from the 11th to the 15th century, 
be considered Mediaeval and not ancient enough 
to credit Ireland with the emanation of the Gothic 
style of architecture. 

We will take the doubter back until he must 
doubt his doubt, by placing him in the magnificent 
Gothic door-way of 

Castledermot Abbey, County Kildare, 
which was founded by Diarmid, son of King Aedh 
Roin, of Ulidia, in the year 800, that should cer- 
tainly, satisfy the doubt of any doubter. 

But should he still doubt Ireland's claim, and 
want like Thomas to put his finger in an earlier 
Gothic opening, he can go to 

County Cork, Ireland, and see 
Cloyne Abbey, 
built in the 6th Century. 



56 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

And Ruskin could have seen that the windows 
and doors of this Abbey are pure and magnificent 
examples of the Gothic style of architecture. 

No inquiry. 
No investigation. 
No pervestigation. 
No research. 

Will enable Ruskin or any one else, to find in all 
Europe a Gothic building ante-dating, 

Cloyne Abbey, 
of the 6th century. 

But Ruskin, is an Englishman, and it may be 
possible that that fact impells him, to use the word 
North, when he means Ireland, for if you look at a 
map of Europe, you will find that Ireland is north 
of every other country in the mainland of Europe, 
and on a level with Denmark, the pirates from 
which gave Ireland a three hundred year war. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 57 

Their King Gu thrum made Alfred the Great flee 
for his life to the marshes of the river Parret (in 
878). 

They overran England until Alfred (in 895) de- 
feated them. 

But as late as the Eleventh century the Danes 
came back conquered England giving her five 
Kings— Sweyn (1013) Canute (1014) Canute IT. 
(1016) Harold Harefoot (1035) and Hardicanute 
(1039 to 1042). In A. D. 800 the Danes planted a 
colony in England on every inlet of the sea. 

King Edmond they shot to death with arrows 
(1016) during the reign of Canute II. 

They slew every English King, and wiped out 
every English royal house, save that of Wessex, 
and in their place set up their own Kings, in 
Northumbria and East Anglia, and by their con- 
federations of towns they ruled England by Dan- 
ish law. 



58 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

At last Wessex itself was conquered and a Dan- 
ish King, Canute (1013) ruled over all England 
from centre to sea. 

Canute's object was to subdue Ireland, make a 
vast Northern Empire with its centre at London. 

But the invincible power of the Irish tribal sys- 
tem for defense barred the way of the invaders. 

In this terrific struggle Magnus III. King of 
Norway (in 1103) was killed in an attempt to sub- 
due Ireland. 

A Norwegian leader, Thorgils, made one su- 
preme effort to conquer Ireland. 

He fixed his capital at Armagh, and set up at 
its shrine the worship of Thor, while his wife, who 
was a kind of Mrs. Eddie Baker, of her day, gave 
her oracles from the high altar of Clonmacnois, on 
the banks of the Shannon, in the prophetess' 
cloak set with precious stones to the hem, the neck- 
lace of cut-glass beads, the staff, and the great 
skin pouch of charms; but the deep penetrating 
mind of the Celt was, at that day, too actue for 
the religious nonsense of Norway's necromancy. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 59 

Thorgils was taken prisoner, executed, and his 
wife, the Charming channer, owing to Irish chiv- 
alry, was but sent back to the barren rocky cliffs 
of Norway. 

The Danes who held long and secure possession 
of England and a great part of Scotland and Nor- 
mandy were never able to occupy permanently any 
part of Ireland. 

Through 300 years of war no Irish royal house 
was destroyed, no Kingdom was extinguished, and 
no national supremacy of the Danes replaced the 
national supremacy of the Irish. 

But the possession and supremacy of the Danes 
over England, was held until the death of Hardi- 
canute (in 1042) when the English line to the 
throne was restored, in the person of Edward the 
Confessor. 

The Danes and Northmen were brave and hardy 
sailors, and their ungenerous, rocky soil impelled 
them to piracy and destruction. 



60 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

They were not in the Gothic building business. 

The world must give credit to religious Ireland, 
for the emanation of that religious style of archi- 
tecture, known as Gothic but which should be 
called Irish. 

Because the Irish were essentially a pastoral 
people, who like the Persians, would not confine 
their Gods within walls. 

They with their druid priests, worshipped in 
the groves, where they often saw the Gothic style 
spring from nature, when an avenue of trees, with 
the trunks apart, but whose boughs and branches 
would lovingly kiss at the top. 

But there was a further reason, which impelled 
Irish architects to adopt the pointed arch, not 
alone that it was the strongest form, which it is, 
but that it was also the most beautiful form in 
which a window or a door-head can be built. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 61 

For its outlines are but patterned after the 
Irish ash-leaf, which has a Gothic contour, that 
delights the eye with its grace and character; be- 
cause it is the work of God in nature. 

And buildings built in this religious style, admit 
of as much variety, as the Almighty gave the very 
leaves of the Irish ash. 

A magnificent example of nature's Gothic, can 
be seen by standing in front of the Mansion 
House, in Druid Hill Park, a name borrowed from 
Ireland, and looking toward the Lake. 

The Irish of those times enobled labor; they 
followed nature, and the man that did the thinking 
did the execution; he was a human being, not an 
animated tool, for the same man that designed, 
was, like Michael Angelo, able to put into execu- 
tion the emanation of his mind, and thus labor 
was dignified by the blending of muscle and intel- 
lect in the artisan. 



62 IRISH ARCHITECTURE 

Irish stone-masons, in the 7th, 8th and 9th 
centuries, went throughout Europe, building these 
beautiful Gothic temples to God, asking no re- 
numeration but their food while working. 

Free-masons they were, indeed, in the literal 
acceptation of the term, building several of them 
in France, Switzerland and Germany. 

The Cologne Cathedral is one of the most 
imposing monuments of Gothic architecture in the 
world. 

This edifice was begun in the 11th Century, but 
was not finished until our own day (1880). 

We have splendid specimens of this Irish style 
of architecture — for Gothic is a misnomer — in our 
own City here, the Mount Vernon Place Methodist 
Episcopal Church, corner of Mount Vernon Place 
and Charles Street, and the First Presbyterian 
Church on the Northwest corner of Park Avenue 
and Madison Street, which was built almost ex- 
clusively by Irish stone-masons. 



IRISH ARCHITECTURE 63 

Neither sneer nor smirk will shadow the fact, 
nor vanish the verity, that the early Irish, who 
were the educators of Germany; wiio gave the 
Italian, Dante, the groundwork for his Divine 
Comedy; who taught the English their letters; 
wha educated Alfred the Great, and christianized 
his pagans ; who were the most expert jewel-smiths 
then in the world, and Whose astronomical knowl- 
edge was taken advantage of and utilized by 
Charlemagne, could and did evolve the Gothic 
(Irish) style of architecture. 



65 



IRISH LITERATURE 

And now of Literature: 

Separated froni the mainland of Europe where 
Infinity seemed to have encircled it from the ruin 
of European civilization, the culture of Erin was 
never interrupted by the Northern hordes which 
overran the continent, hence Ireland's intellectu- 
ality was the aurora borealis, in the otherwise 
starless "night of the middle ages. 

The fall of the Roman Empire which scattered 
the Goths and Vandals, Burgundians and Franks 
over the West of Europe to the Atlantic and South 
across the Mediterranean to Africa and the Sax- 
ons northward to Great Britain, left Ireland, 
because untouched and unconquered, the School- 
house of Europe. 

The pagan English (in 547) had set up a mon- 
archy in Northumbria and the lowlands, intending 
to wipe out the Picts and the Irish or Scot settle- 
ments along the coast. 



66 IRISH LITERATURE 

But the statesman, patriot, poet, scholar and 
leader of the Celtic world, Columcille, through 
power of the principles of human brotherhood and 
religion converted the King of the Picts at Inver- 
ness (in 565), restored the Scot settlement from 
Ireland which later gave its name to Scotland, 
and consecrated as King the Irish Aidan, ancestor 
of the Kings of Scotland and England. 

Irish missionaries went over the most of Eng- 
land and had it practically christianized before 
Pope Gregory sent St. Augustine, with his Roman 
missionaries (597) who with much trepidation 
landed on the Island of Thanet where they were 
detained by the order of Ethelbert until he as- 
sured himself that their magic was not superior 
to his. 

But Augustine and his 40 missionaries on ac- 
count of hating "barbarism", and speaking no 
English made no, or but little progress, and after 
some reverses their labors were practically con- 
fined to Kent. 



IRISH LITERATURE 67 

In 662 there was but one Bishop in the whole 
of England who was not of Irish consecration. 

And this Bishop, Agilbert of Wessex, was a 
Frenchman who had been, for years, educated in 
Ireland. 

The great school of Malmesbury, in Wessex was 
founded by an Irishman, as that of Lindisfame — 
a small Island off Northumberland (3 x If^ miles; 
at low water it can be walked to; high water the 
strait covered by sea is IV2 miles — ) had been 
in the north by the Irish Bishop Aidan. 

"That man is to be little envied whose patriot- 
ism would not gain force upon the plains of Mara- 
thon, or whose piety would not grow among the 
ruins of lona" the ancient home of Columcille, 
so says: Dr. Johnson, (Scotch Western Isles 
Journey.) 



68 IRISH LITERATURE 

It was Columcille more than any other one man 
who found England a mere congeries of warring 
tribes, civilized it, and by christianizing it, 
brought it into union with the rest of Europe: 
so says the Englishman, The Venerable Bede. 

Not that Columcille was able to uproot all the 
paganism and savagery that then existed in Eng- 
land; 

Neither he nor Augustine did that; 

For Saxo Grammaticus, the Danish historian, 
tells us that ' ' their lives were so primeval in prac- 
tices and concepts, — a people so suspicious, 
melancholy and full of grim slaughter, that for 
analogues we have to turn to surviving savage 
tribes. 

In the 7th century (A. D. 665) two Kings of 
the East Saxons, Sighers and Sebbi ; Sighers with 
his people turned apostate during a pestilence 
and became idolaters. 



IRISH LITERATURE 69 

What Columcille did for England, Columbanus 
the finished scholar of Gaelic, Latin, Greek and 
Hebrew, did for France. 

He founded a school in Luxenil among the 
ruined heaps of a Roman City once the cross-roads 
between Italy and France, but now left by the 
barbarians a wilderness for wild beasts. 

Other houses from this one branched out into 
France and Switzerland and (in 600) he founded 
his monastery and school at Bobio in the Apen- 
nines, wherein were taught rhetoric, geometry 
and poetry. 

For a quarter of a century he spoke and battled 
against the vice and ignorance of half-pagan 
Bergundy, did this Irishman. 

At Rome he was received graciously by Gregory 
the Great, and his passion for piety took such a 
hold on the people that for a time it seemed as if 
the rule of the Irishman Columbanus might outdo 
that of the Italian, St. Benedict. (Green.) 



70 IRISH LITERATURE 

Bede tells us that, during the reign of Sigbert 
over the East-Saxons, the Irishman Fursa, after 
preaching and teaching for years in Ireland, went 
over to England (A. D. 730) to christianize the 
East Angles. 

And Sigbert was so pleased at his coming that 
h-e gave him Burg Castle, in Suffolk, and gladly 
built schools for him on the ground of the realm 
and the King of the province Annu embellished it 
with more stately buildings and an endowment. 

Oswald, King of the Northumberland (7th 
Cent) induced the splendid French, Latin and 
Gaelic scholar, Aidan, to go over to England to 
help in the education and conversion of his sub- 
jects to Christianity. 

A County Waterford man — Gotofor — was a 
distinguished classical, French and Arabic scholar 
(13th Cent.) 



IRISH LITERATURE 71 

He travelled extensively in the East, and trans- 
lated several works from Latin, Greek and 
Arabic into the French language. 

St. Gall, a disciple of Columbanus, is patron 
Saint of St. Gall, called after him in Switzerland. 

Charlemagne (in A. D. 792) hearing of the wis- 
dom and learning of Albin and Clement, two 
Irishmen, who were then in France, sent for them 
and requested of Albin that he teach in the mon- 
astery of St. Augustine at Pavia, in Italy; and 
was delighted to get Clement, to whom he en- 
trusted the education of Frenchmen in one of the 
principal schools of Paris. 

St. Kilian christianized Bavaria and is the 
apostle of Franconia. 

Pelagius, the subtle and persuasive heresiarch, 
whose family name was Morgan, taught in Rome, 
in the year 400. 



12 IRISH LITERATURE 

He carried on a discussion in Jerusalem in 415 
with Orosius, the Spaniard, in which he spoke 
Greek while Orosius needed an interpreter and 
Zimmer reminds us that had he not learned Greek 
in Ireland he could not have learned it in Rome. 

And though his ideas on original sin were (er- 
roneous and) not in accord with Church doctrine, 
his literary ability is a proof that, at that early 
time, even before St. Patrick came to Ireland, a 
liberal education was possible and common to 
many. 

The patron Saint of the Canton of Glarus in 
Switzerland is an Irishman whom the Swiss in 
their violent way of translating Celtic names 
called St. Fridslan. (Feehan.) 

The astronomer Dungal was an Irishman from 
the County Clare. 



IRISH LITERATURE 73 

He was eminent as a teacher of astronomy and 
(in 811 A. D.) was consulted by Charlemagne con- 
cerning an eclipse which had taken place the year 
before. 

Now why was Dungal consulted by Charle- 
magne? Because Irish astronomers knew more 
about the movement of the heavenly bodies at 
that time than any other people on earth. 

It is of little use to make a statement unless one 
can corroborate it by facts. 

And it is only by facts, that I shall prove that 
the work of the civil engineers and astronomers 
of Ireland was pre-eminent, thousands of years 
ago. 

Let us brush away the technical and come down 
to the practical that everyone understands. 

Tlhe length of a mile, should correspond to one- 
sixtieth part of the length of a degree, or one 
minute of latitude, which is, 6,075 80-100 feet. 



74 IRISH LITERATURE 

Now that being a fact you can make your own 
calculation, and find that the Irish mile of 6,720 
feet, is really 152 feet nearer to accuracy than the 
English mile of 5,280 feet. 

This is really wonderful when we take into con- 
sideration the very early period in pre-christian 
times in which Irish engineers and astronomers 
legalized the standard of the Irish mile, and con- 
trasting it with the English mile which was made 
legal as late as the reign of Elizabeth. 

Washington Irving tells us that one of the mov- 
ing causes which led Columbus to enquire of the 
land beyond the ocean was the Roman records of 
the mariner, Brendan, the Irishman who discov- 
ered America 515. 

Matthew Arnold, speaking of Brendan says: 

*'St. Brendan sails the northern main. 
The brotherhood of Saints are glad. 

He greets them once, he sails again — 

So late — such storms — the Saint is mad." 



IRISH LITERATURE 75 

Sir James Ware all of whose ancestors were 
English proves in his "Treatise on Irish writers" 
that the English Saxons received from the Irish 
their characters or letters and with them the arts 
and sciences that have flourished since among 
these people. 

Moreri, the French biographer, says: Ireland 
has given the most distinguished professors to 
the most famous universities of Europe, as Claud- 
ius Clements to Paris; Albuinus to Pavia, 
Virgilius (Ferghil) who taught the existence of 
the antipodes eight hundred years before Galileo, 
to Salzburg; and Scotus Erigenia to Oxford, Eng- 
land. Green the English historian, says : 

Irishmen brighteneci the intellect of Europe by 
education, but they could not in those early days 
take all the animal out of man. 



76 IRISH LITERATURE 

Irish scholars journeyed to Compostello, in 
Spain, to Rome and through Greece to the Jordan 
and Jerusalem teaching poetry and their fine art 
of illuminated writing, and those who among them 
were priests preaching the gospel to the people. 

The Irish Bishop, John of Mecklenburg, 
preached to the Vandals between the Elbe in Ger- 
many and the Vistula, the great river of Poland. 

Marianus, the Irishman, on his pilgrimage to 
Rome, stopped at Regensburg on the Danube and 
founded there (A. D. 1068) two monasteries; there 
were, about this time, twelve Irish convents in 
Germany and Austria. 

Irishmen who went to the Continent in those 
days always took latin names which were general- 
ly translations of their Irish names. An Irish 
Abbot was head of a monasterv in Bulgaria. 



IRISH LITERATURE 77 

It was an Irish professor, in the Paris Univer- 
sity, (A. D. 1100) who taught the only English- 
man that ever sat in the Papal chair, — Adrian IV 
— and it is a tradition with the Munster people 
that, that Irish professor did a self-imposed pen- 
ance for four years, from the time Adrian issued 
the "bull" to Henry II. (1155) empowering him 
to go over to Ireland to improve a people who 
were the school-masters of Europe, to the English 
Pope's death (in 1159). 

England would have Irishmen forget the thou- 
sand years of their ancient glory and commence 
their history from Adrian's "Bull." 

Irishmen were chaplains of Conrad III (1152) 
who led an army to the holy wars, and which was 
destroyed by Greek treachery, and of his succes- 
sor Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany 
(who destroyed Milan 1162). 

The Irishman Fursa is as well known on the 
continent as in Munster, his birthplace. 



78 IRISH LITERATURE 

Dr. Reeves says: that St. Fursa has profoundly 
affected the eschatology of Christianity by de- 
fining the conceptions of men with regard to that 
mysterious region on which every man enters after 
death. 

It was this Fursa whose visions were known all 
over Ireland, Great Britain, and France; Bede, 
himself dedicates a good deal of space to Fursa 's 
visions. 

Now Dante was acquainted with Bede's writ- 
ings, for he expressly mentions him, and Bede's 
account of Fursa and Fursa 's own life may have 
been familiar to Dante and furnished him with 
the groundwork of part of the Divine Comedy 
of wliich it seems a kind of prototype; a large 
number of close parallels has been pointed out 
between Fursa 's vision and Dante's poem which 
seem altogether too striking to be fortuitous. 



IRISH LITERATURE 79 

Ireland is a country which will not yield and 
cannot die, qualities which make Ealph Waldo 
Emerson, the eminent New England scholar, say: 

"The Irish are the oldest people on earth today. 
He asks. Where are the Greeks'? Where are the 
Etrurians? Where are the Romans? But the 
Celts, have come down to the present day, of 
whose beginning there is no memory, and their 
end is likely to be still more remote in the future. 
They educated Britain and gave to the seas and 
mountains names which are poems and imitate 
the pure voices of nature; they had an alphabet, 
astronomy and a rare culture, long, long in the 
past. ' ' 

Rev. Isaac Taylor, — an Englishman, says, "that 
there is not a stream, current, brook or channel in 
Europe which is not Celtic named; the names of 
all the large rivers of Europe and a very great 
number of the smaller streams are Gaelic though 
distorted in orthography". 



80 IRISH LITERATURE 



In Gaelic the word for water is "UISGE", from 
which we get a great number of streams and riv- 
ers, as ESK, ESKER, ISIS, ISCA, and UX and 
many others. 

The word "REA" in Gaelic means rapid from 
which we get names for many English rivers, such 
as the RAY, RHEE, ROY, ROE, RODEN and 
RIBBLE. On the Continent we find the RHINE, 
RHONE, REGGE, RHA and RHENO. 

DON, — is an obsolete Gaelic word for water; it 
is found in the names of many rivers in Europe. 

In the British Isles are DON, DANE, DUN, 
EDEN, TYNE, TEIGNE, TYNET and BANDON. 

Gaelic river names are spread throughout the 
Continent, such as DANUBE, DON, ADONIS, 
DERDON, ROSCODON and many others. 

From the Gaelic TAM, which means spreading 
—or quiet— we get the rivers TAME, THAMES, 
TEMA and TAVE. 



IRISH LITERATURE 81 

From CAM, — the Gaelic for Crooked is derived 
CAMLAD, CAMBECK and CAMON. 

GRAV, in Gaelic means rough, from which we 
get GARRA, YARE, GARWAY, YARROW and 
GARELOCH. 

Many other groups of Gaelic river names 
might be traced and added to these to support 
our claim that early Irish scholars spread learn 
iug and literature from the Shannon to the 
Thames, from the Thames to the Tiber and from 
the Tiber to the Tigris. 

Queen Osberga looked through all Europe in 
A, D. 864 for a fully equipped school to which she 
could send her son Alfred, afterwards Alfred the 
Great, and selected Ireland as the place wherein 
history, mathematics, geography and poetry could 
be best taught. 



82 IRISH LITERATURE 

And when Alfred became King in A. D. 875, 
his first care after driving out the Danes in A. D. 
878, was the education of the English people in 
the higher branches of learning and poetry, and 
with that end in view, he invited, and was de- 
lighted to get, one of the greatest scholars of his 
time, John Scotus Erigenia, an Irishman. 

Erigenia was distinguished for his knowledge 
of Greek which was taught in Ireland's schools 
for hundreds of years previously, and none but 
God knows how it got there, but there it was in 
all its pristine vigor and native purity. 

So proficient were they in latin that they trans- 
lated the ''Iliad" from latin into their native 
tongue the Gaelic. 

Throughout Europe Irishmen became chancel- 
lors of universities, professors in colleges, and 
high officials in every European state. 

A Kerry man was physician to the King of 
Poland. 



IRISH LITERATURE 83 

Another Kerry man, confessor to the Queen of 
Portugal and sent by the King on an embassy to 
Louis XIV. 

A Donegal man, O'Glacan, was privy council- 
lor to the King of France. 

And in modem times one of the finest pieces pf 
literature; as great a pen picture as ever was 
written is Burke's ''Essay on the Sublime and 
Beautiful". Its excellence of diction and origin- 
ality of thought and luxuriant flow of English at 
once attracted the attention of Blair, Hume, Sir 
Joshua Reynolds and other eminent men of the 
time. 

Even Dr. Johnson, who at that time was in the 
zenith of his power surrounded by a constellation 
of which every star was of the first magnitude, 
and before whose caustic criticisms the literary 
world trembled, acknowledged the youthful 
Irishman, Edmund Burke, of 26 years, his equal; 
whose penetration was more searching and com- 
prehensive than his own. 



84 IRISH LITERATURE 

I like Burke, not only for his splendid ''Essay 
on the Sublime and Beautiful", but for the beau- 
tiful and sublime words he spoke in 1776 in favor 
of American independence. 

The world has no parallel, never had a parallel 
in its history where there was cast out of any 
country such genius, learning, and industry", as the 
English flung, as it were, into the sea. 

And along with that supreme and unselfish loy- 
alty to their race and the unswerving fidelity 
with which they cherished the language, poetry, 
history and freedom of their country Irish exiles 
have stood pre-eminent for their love of liberty, 
even to the laying down of their lives when th^ 
lands of their adoption needed the sacrifice. 



85 




^CK^fd /in-« do€*e /^o^n e^fncin /o ^^^^ae^t , ^■n,<c 

IRISH POETRY 



What of Irish Poetry: 

Music, is the universal language of man, the 
same in all tongues, because it appeals to the heart 
and, "their never was separate heart-beat in all 
the races of men." 



86 IRISH POETRY 

The pleasures of the taste are varied because 
animalistic. 

The pleasures of the eye are pleasures of the 
intellect, demanding contrast and variety running 
to square, round, octagon, blue, black, gray or 
green appealing to the mind. 

It was through the eye to the mind that St. 
Patrick appealed when he plucked the Shamrock 
from the sod, held it up in full view of King, 
Druids, Bards and people and explained the Trin- 
ity by its three leaves from one stem. 

But the pleasures of the ear go right to the 
heart entrancing it with delight, or appealing to 
the most tender emotions, as the effect of the cry 
of a babe has on the heart of a mother, going 
right to her soul. 



IRISH POETRY 87 

And the Irish people have a mountain of music 
and melody which speak, not so much to the in- 
tellect of the chosen few, as German or Italian 
oratorios, but which is the language of the emo- 
tions the bursting forth into song of the heart 
and the soul of the Irishman, yea, of the plain 
people of all nationalities. 

The Celt has never looked upon life as the pro- 
gression of a protoplasm vivified by a sun-ray. 

He rides no such moon-beams. 

He knows that he is made in the image and 
likeness of God. 

And he has too much faith in the Almighty, to 
act as did Goethe's Faust, who because he could 
not know all things, threw himself into the em- 
brace of Mephistopheles. 

To the Irish mind there is nothing more natural 
than the supernatural. 



88 IRISH POETRY 



He feels that God is behind every phenomenon 
of the universe, and this sublime faith satisfies 
the longings of his soul, and keeps him from 
going, — like Saul in disguise, or otherwise, to "A 
Witch of Endor." 

He knows that at his door every morning the 
musical melody of the spheres out of the Irish 
horizon can be felt as the day god advances on 
his march to the Zenith, vivifying his ideas by 
clothing them with hope; and diamond-decorating 
them with a faith which carry him to the verge 
of infinity where the gossamer of sacredness but 
barely veils the presence of God. 

Under the poetic inspiration of this — Ireland's 
beautiful scenery, Handel produced his Oratorio 
of the Messiah", and this, the noblest and grand- 
est of all church music was first played in the City 
of Dublin o 



IRISH POETRY 89 

From the very earliest times the Irish were cel- 
ebrated for their skill in music, and Irish profes- 
sors and teachers of music were almost as much in 
request in foreign countries as those of literature. 

The poetic influence of the ancient Irish on the 
continent says Dr. Sigerson, began in the works 
of the Irishman Sedulius, wliose "Carmen Pas- 
chale", published in the fifth century, is the first 
great Christian epic worthy of the name. 

This Irishman who lived in the first half of the 
fifth century is called the virgil of theological 
poetry. 

He traveled through Gaul and Italy passing 
into Greece wherein he made Achaia his home. 
(Sedulius-Shiel). 

The bards of ancient Ireland were one of the 
privileged orders; a class of great influence who 
might be made either powerful friends or turned 
into unrelenting foes. 



90 IRISH POETRY 

St. Patrick recognized the propriety of dealing 
with this potential class. 

As a class, they had no special interest like the 
Druids, — priests of the sun worship — to be op- 
posed to St. Patrick. 

And here let me say that if there is an exalted 
worship outside of a belief in one true God, our 
pagan Irish ancestors had it; no bowing down to 
a block, or rock, or a golden calf, but a lifting up 
of the heart and soul to the visible giver of all 
material life, fructification and prosperity — the 
Sun. 

Hence Dubthach Mac Luchair, the arch poet of 
Erin became Patrick's fast friend and most saga- 
cious counsellor, and his influence with the people 
when he said: "This harp of mine will never 
again resound save in the praises of love and Pat- 
rick's God." 

Worked for the interest of the infant Church, 
bringing it many converts. 



IRISH POETRY 91 

And this friendly alliance of St. Patrick with 
the bards of Erin is recognized in all our national 
traditions, and finds expression in the ancient 
tales of the Saint's kindly relations with Ossian, 
the most renowned of all the bards of Erin, and 
whom MacPherson, the Scotchman, attempted to 
steal from us. History is full of robberies, Amer- 
ica should be called Columbia, not as a poetical 
title, but to emphasize an historical fact, and Sco- 
tia, Minor, Scotland has attempted — often with 
undeserving success — to steal from Scotia, Major, 
Ireland facts which belong to, and which should 
shed lustre on Ireland. 

In the middle of the 7th century, Gertrude, 
Abbess of Nivelle, in Belgium, daughter of Pepin, 
Mayor of the Palace, and who became virtual 
master of the Frank monarchy, engaged Saint 
Foillan and Saint Ultan, brothers of the Irish 
Saint Fursa, to instruct her pupils in psalmody. 



92 IRISH POETRY 

In ike latter half of the 9th century the cloister 
schools of St. Gall, in Switzerland, were con- 
ducted by an Irishman, Maengel, or Marcellus, 
under whose teaching the music there attained its 
highest fame. 

It was the Irish Celts who taught the English 
the Art of Rhyme. 

The English knew something of 

*'Apt Alliteration's Artful Aid" but they knew 
absolutely nothing of Rhyme. 

And might I, myself, alliterate a little on them, 
and say that they knew neither Rhyme nor Reason 
in dealing with Ireland, or with the Boers of 
South Africa, or with the people of India which 
was the land of gold and gems and of palaces that 
were dreams of beauty, until England's lust for 
loot ladronized it. 



IRISH POETRY 93 

They were taught to rhyme by our Erigena's 
and hundreds of Irish literary teachers, called 
"Culdees" — from Angus Ceile De, a missionary 
monk of the eighth century — who went from Ire- 
land ' ' to soothe the Saxons ' savage breast. ' ' And 
show the Cross as heaven's crest. 

Think not, my friends, that my native feeling- 
gives birth to these words you have just heard 
from me, it does not, these words are from the 
lips of two Englishmen, Mathew Arnold and John 
Morley. 

And Mr. Morley, the Englishman says that 
"The main current of English literature cannot 
be disconnected from the lively Celtic wit in 
which it has its source and a poetic imagination 
but for which the Northmen's blood in France 
would not have quickened, nor would Germanic 
England have produced a Shakespeare," who got 
his plot for his Mid-summer Night's Dream from 
Irish Fairy folk-lore. 



94 IRISH POETRY 

Mathew Arnold says: "The Saxon doesn't 
claim an open and clear mind nor a quick flexible 
intelligence" hence their inability to voice the 
ideal and paint in words what they never either 
mentally or spiritually felt. 

In speaking of the Irish Arnold again says: 
''The ancient Celt's quick feeling for that which 
is noble and distinguished gave his poetry style; 
his indomitable personality gave it pride and pas- 
sion; his sensibility and nervous exaltation gave 
it a better gift still — the gift of rendering with 
wonderful felicity the musical charm of nature. 

And to add to the authority of these two splen- 
didly educated Englishmen, let us hear what the 
erudite German philologist, the great Zeus, says 
on this tremendous claim for the Irishman, a 
claim in comparison with which everything else 
that he has done in literature pales into insignifi- 
cance; yet it has been made for him by the 
foremost scholars of Europe. 



IRISH POETRY 95 

The great Zeus, himself is emphatic on this 
point : 

**The form of Irish poetry" he writes, "to 
judge both from the older and the more recent ex- 
amples adduced, is more ornate than the poetic 
form of any other nation and from the fact of 
their greater orateness, it undoubtedly came to 
pass at the very time the Eoman Empire was 
hastening to its ruin, the Irish poems passed over 
not only into the song of the Latins, but also into 
those of other nations and remained in them, and 
the advance toward Rhyme made in the Latin 
poetry of the Anglo-Saxons is to be unhesitatingly 
ascribed to Irish influence/' 

**We must believe," writes Zeus, that this form 
was introduced among them by the Irish as were 
the arts of writing and of painting and of orna- 
menting manuscripts, since they, themselves, in 
common with the other Germanic nations made 
use in their poetry of nothing but alliteration. 



96 IRISH POETRY 

Kuno Meyer, the great German literatus and 
Gaelic scholar, gives a wonderful example of 
technical difficulties overcome by an Irish bard in 
a six-syllable metre with dissyllabic endings. 

I shall hand up to some poet the "tour de force" 
of this which consists of laying stress in the begin- 
ning of each succeeding stanza upon the word 
which ended the last. 

The first stanzas translated into the metre of 
the original, run as follows: 

"Bless, O Christ, my speaking 

King of heavens seven, 
Strength and wealth and power 

In this hour be given. 

Given, thou brightest, 

Destined chains to sever, 
King of Angels glorious. 

And victorious ever. 

Ever o'er us shining. 

Light to mortals given. 
Beaming daily, nightly. 

Brightly out of heaven." 



IRISH POETRY 97 



This may not excel in the true poetic spirit, but 
Kuno Meyer thought it was a splendid instance 
of mastering the difficult. 

Macaulay says: "That the most wonderful and 
splendid proof of genius, in a people, is their 
facility of expressing the power of the intellect, 
and the emotions of the heart in poetry" and in 
this the Irish were pre-eminent. 

Hence sincerely the Immortal Mozart said: '^I 
would rather be the composer of that beautiful 
Irish melody 'Eileen Aroon' than all the works 
that ever came from my pen". 

The great accomplished Italian, Francesco 
Geminiani, left in his history of music these 
words : * ' there is no original music in the West of 
Europe, except that which is left us by Irish 
bards." 

Most people, owing to their comparative neglect 
of Irish history, are of the opinion that the bards 
were harpers, or at least musicians of some sort. 

But they were nothing of the kind. 



98 IRISH POETRY 

Not until the latter half of the Seventeenth cen- 
tury, after the Treaty of Limerick was violated 
(1691) did the verse-maker or bard merge into 
the musician, and the harper and bard became 
fused in one, as was the case with Carolan, com- 
monly called the last of the bards, and who died, 
in 1738, a few years before Moore was born. 

It was this same Turlough 'Carolan, born in 
Meath, 1670, who in 1730 gave us the air ''Ana- 
creon in Heaven" this air was first published in 
America by Mathew Carey, an Irishman, in ' ' The 
Vocal Companion" in 1796. 

And Francis Scott Key directed his song ''The 
Star-Spangled Banner" to be sung to the air of 
"Anacreon in Heaven." 

Stafford Smith, the alleged composer of the air, 
entered the copyright of his ''Fifth Book of Can- 
zonets," the collection of which contained it, on 
May 14, 1799, and he only arranged the tune in the 
form of a glee; and though he lived till 1836 he 
never laid claim to its composition. 



IRISH POETRY 99 

"Anacreon in Heaven" had been printed in 
1771, before Smith had published anything. 

The music and words were reprinted by Anne 
Lee, of Dublin, in 1780, and it had appeared in 
many collections before Smith included it in his. 

The legend of the air's English origin was cre- 
ated by Chappell who mistook Smith's collection 
for Smith's composition, and Mr. Sonneck, chief 
of the Division of Music in the library of Congress 
followed Chappell. 

It seems Providential in its fitness that this 
magnificent American national air should origin- 
ate in Ireland and in its being set by Key's order 
to the deathless song that was inspired by the 
sight of the American flag floating triumphantly 
from Fort MacHenry. 

Doctor MacHenry, Washington's army surgeon 
in 1776 and Secretary of War in 1796, and for 
whom the fort was named was an Irishman. 



100 IRISH POETRY 

But to get out of the boreen into which the flag 
of our heart, and Key, enticed us. 

l^he popular conception of the bard with long 
white beard and the large harp may be poetic 
but it is grotesquely wrong. 

The bards were verse makers pure and simple, 
and they were no more musicians than the poet 
laureate of England. 

Their business was to construct their poems 
after the wonderful and complex models of the 
schools and the musicians or harpers who ren- 
dered these poems, though A numerous, educated 
and honorable class were absolutely distinct from 
the bards. 

This honorable class which in cultured, ancient 
Erin was respected, honored and laureled, was 
repressed, discouraged and penalized, by the 
modern Vandals who in Moore's day despoiled 
Ireland, not only of her temporal possessions, but 
destroyed her temples and drove her scholars to 
caves. 



IRISH POETRY 101 

Yet throughout all these bitter years Ireland's 
patriotic, poetical spirit produced priceless gems 
in verse. 

Listen to the patriot, Thomas Osborne Davis, 
whose fancy clothed with interest many incidents 
in the history of Ireland, and whose spirit of tol- 
erance ever tended to assuage race rancor: 

And oh! it were a gallant deed 

To show before mankind, 
How every race and every creed 

Might be by love combined — 
Might be combined, yet not forget 

The fountains whence they rose. 
As filled by many a rivulet 

The stately Shannon flows. 



102 IRISH POETRY 

John Boyle O'Reilly, poet, journalist and pa- 
triot, whose life emphasizes that: 

"There is a divinity that shapes our ends 
Rough hew them as we may." 

He who was transported to Australia for his at- 
tempt to make Ireland a nation, and rescued by 
Irish- Americans after a seven year's exile, 

Says, in answer to the question, What did Irish- 
men bring toward the up-building of this mighty 
nation : 

"No treason we bring from Erin — nor bring we 

shame or guilt! 
The Sword we hold may be broken, but we have 

not dropped the hilt! 
The wreath we bear to Columbia is twisted of 

thorns, not bays; 
And the songs we sing are saddened by thoughts 

of desolate days. 
But the hearts we bring for freedom are washed 

in the surge of tears; 
And we claim our right by a people's fight out — 

living a thousand years!" 



IRISH POETRY 103 



J. J. Callanan, in his description of natural 
scenery, is unrivalled, and whose lyre was ever 
attuned to tenderness, says: 

"Oh! yes — this heart would sooner break, 
Than one unholy thought awake; 

I'd sooner slumber into clay, ; 

Than cloud thy spirit's beauteous ray; 

Go, free as air — as angel free 
And, lady, think no more of me." 



104 IRISH POETRY 



Samuel Ferguson, author of the *' Tain-Quest," 
an heroic poem descriptive of the earlier cycle of 
Irish history. In it are recorded the exploits of 
Conor MacNessa; Fergus MacRoy; Maev, Queen 
of Connaught; Conall Camach, and Cuchullin: — 
one verse of which runs: 

''Not for selfish gawds or baubles 

Dares my soul disturb the graves 
Love consoles, but song enobles 

Songless men are meet for slaves 
Fergus, for the Gael's sake, waken 

Never let the scornful Gauls 
'Mongst our land's reproaches reckon 

Lack of song within our walls." 



IRISH POETRY 105 



Edward Fitzgerald's splendid translation of 
"Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" stamps him as a 
man of extraordinary genius, and though it 
teaches the false philosophy of a religious infidel, 
Fitzgerald's metrical rendering lulls one with 
sounds of sweetest melody. 

The Hon. John Hay travelled to the very verge 
of truth when he said of it, — ' ' Wherever the Eng- 
lish language is spoken it has taken its place as a 
classic, not a hill-post in India, not a village in 
England, in the Eastern States of America, as 
well as the cities of the West, and in desolate 
spots of the high Rockies but you will find a co- 
terie to whom Omar Khayyam is a bond of 
union." — Gush. — ^But here are three quartrains: 

"Why if the soul can fling the dust aside 
And naked on the air of Heaven ride 

Were't not a shame — were it not a shame for him 
In this clay carcase crippled to abide." 

''When you and I behind the veil are past 

Oh, but the long, long while the World shall 
last 
Which of our Coming and Departure heeds 

As the sea's self should heed a pebble cast." 
'*Yon rising moon that looks for us again — 

How oft hereafter will she wax and wane; 
How oft hereafter rising look for us 

Through this same Garden — and for one in 
vain. ' ' 



106 IRISH POETRY 

Denis F. McCarthy, in one amongst his many 
splendid poems described the "Round Towers" 
thus: 

"The pillar towers of Ireland how wonderously 
they stand 
By the lakes and rushing rivers through the 
valleys of our land 
In mystic file through the isle they lift their heads 
sublime 
Tfhese gray old pillar temples — these con- 

querers of time! 

# * * # 

What terror and what error; what gleams of love 

and truth, 
Have flashed from these walls since the earth was 

in its youth. 

» * # # 

While the breast needeth rest may these gray old 

temples last 
Bright prophets of the future, as preachers of the 

past!" 



IRISH POETRY 107 



Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who wrote **The 
Rivals" and the ** School for Scandal" which are 
superior in comedy to anything else we have, has 
also given us the best models of lyric poetry, in 
the best Opera — "The Duenna," in which there 
is this verse. 

''Then how my soul can we be poor 

Who own what kingdoms could not buy 
Of this true heart thou shall be queen 

And serving thee — a monarch I, 
And thus controll'd in mutual bliss 

And rich in love's exhaustless mine — 
Do thou snatch treasures from my lip 

And I'll take kingdoms back from thine." 



108 IRISH POETRY 



Aubrey De Vere, whose poetry has a strong and 
healthy patriotism, says this of the men of the 
West of Ireland — 

^'All praise to King Roderick, the prince of Clan 
Conor 
The King of all Erin, and Cathall his son. 
May the million-voiced chant that in endless ex- 
pansion 
Sweep onward to heaven his praises prolong; 
May the heaven of heavens this night be his 
mansion 
Of the good King who died in the cloister.s 
of Cong." 



IRISH POETRY 1C9 



Thomas Parnell, portrayed in his poetry char- 
acters of ease, sprightliness, fancy, clearness of 
language and melody of versification. 

Who having once read can forget "The Her- 
mit" portraying the world as it really is, giving 
to those who already have, and taking from those 
who have not; all regulated by the providence 
of God. 

Far in a wild unknown to public view 

From youth to age a reverend hermit grew 
The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell, 

His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well 
Remote from men with God he passed his days, 

Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise, 
A life so sacred, such serens repose. 

Seemed Heaven itself — 



110 IRISH POETRY 

William Congrave, whose style, Haslitt, says: 

"Is inimitable, nay, perfect; every sentence re- 
plete with sense and satire, conveyed in the most 
polished terms, which presents a shower of bril- 
liant epigrams in prose." 

The great Johnson, says: ''That in Congrave 
can be found a finer passage than any that can 
be found in Shakespeare. 

Here is the passage describing the feelings of 
Almeria meeting her husband whom she thought 
dead, but now disguised as the captive Osmyn at 
the tomb of his father Anselmo — 

*'It strikes an awe 

And terror on my aching sight; the tombs 

And monumental caves of death look cold, 

And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart. 

Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice 

Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear 

Thy voice — my own affright me with its echoes." 



IRISH POETRY 111 



Samuel Lover, while best known as a novelist, 
was a sweet singer of verse, and in speaking of 
his native music says: 

*'0h! native music! beyond comparing 
The sweetest far on the ear that falls 
Thy gentle numbers the heart remembers 
Thy strains enchain us in tender thralls 
Thy tones endearing 
Or sad or cheering 
The absent soothe on a foreign strand 
Ah! who can tell 
What a holy spell 
Is in the song of our native land.'* 



112 IRISH POETRY 



James Clarence Mangan, whose acquaintance 
with foreign tongues was so extensive that his 
translations may be seen from most every 
language in the world says: 

To leave the world a name is nought; 
To leave a name for golden deeds 

And works of love — 
A name to waken lightning thought 
And fire the soul of him who reads, 

This tells above. 
Napoleon sinks today before 
The ungilded shrine, the single soul 

Of Washington ; 
Truth's name, alone, shall man adore 
Long as the waves of time shall roll 

Henceforward on! 



IRISH POETRY 113 



Gerald Griffin produced "Gisippus," which 
Haslitt pronounced "the greatest drama of our 
time" and at twenty-five wrote "The Collegians." 

Describing a Sister of Charity, one of the verses 
runs thus: 

"Unshrinking when pestilence scatters his breath 

Like an angel she moves 'mid a vapor of 

death 

Where rings the loud musket, and flashes the 

sword 

Unf earing she walks for she follows the Lord. 

How sweetly she bends o'er each plague-tainted 
face 
With looks that are lighted with holiest 
grace ! 
How kindly she dresses each suffering limb 

For she sees in the wounded the image of 
Him." 



114 IRISH POETRY 



Who could forget, wlio knows anything of Irish 
poetry, the poems of Francis Mahony (Father 
Prout) and his "Shandon Bells." Listen 

''With deep affection 

And recollection 
I often think of those Shandon bells 

Whose sound so wild would 
In days of childhood 

Fling round my cradle their magic spells. 

On this I ponder 

Where'er I wonder 
And thus grow fonder sweet Cork of thee 

With thy bells of Shandon 
That sound so Grand on 

The pleasant waters of the river Lee." 



IRISH POETRY 115 

Oliver Goldsmith, dear, delightful, improvident 
"Ollie." 

Writer of the "Vicar of Wakefield," that peace- 
ful poem in prose, which we read with benefit in 
youth and age and bless the memory of an author 
who contrives so well to reconcile us to human 
nature. 

When Carl Schurz, on coming to this country, 
wanted to perfect himself in the English language 
enquired what author would be best to translate 
from English into German and then metaphrase 
back again into English — he was advised to take 
Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" as a work of 
purest English. 

The condition of his country is truly portrayed 
in the "Deserted village" thus — 

"111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay 

Princes and lords may flourish or may fade — 
A breath can make them, as a breath has made; 

But a bold peasantry, their country's pride 
When once destroyed, can never be supplied." 



116 IRISH POETRY 

At Moore's birth the ancient Irish nation, the 
nation that earlier gave an education to Alfred 
the Great was indeed all but annihilated, and 
every syllable of Goldsmith's verse was but a 
faithful verity of existing conditions. 

Someone has said that everything depends on 
the accident of time. 

And without being fatalists we may concede 
that very much depends on the accident of time. 

Tbe golden era of Italian letters came before 
the reformation, so that Italian literature would 
have remained essentially Catholic even if Italy 
had become Protestant during the reformation. 

Even now, when much of the writing in Italy 
comes from Agnostics, the models to which they 
must refer are the old Catholic masters. 

Dante will ever remain the sun around which 
all Italian literature must revolve, and Dante 
lived before the reformation. 



IRISH POETRY 117 

On the other hand, if the reformation in Eng- 
land, which took place in 1534, during the reign 
of Henry VIII, had fallen just fifty years later, or 
in 1584, more than half of Elizabeth 's reign would 
have been Catholic and the golden age of English 
letters, language and literature would have been 
Catholic and would have become for evermore an 
asset for the old Church. That fifty years of the 
reformation has, however, tinged English letters 
and literature Protestant. 

Yet one cannot help but think that Elizabeth's 
England shone like luna, by borrowed light, the 
glories of her age are not her glories. 

Fifty years is not sufficient time to metamor- 
phose a Protestant people into Catholics or a 
Catholic people into Protestants. 

No matter the lip service they thought as Cath- 
olics, it is impossible to conceive otherwise, one 
cannot think of them as a nation of caterpillars 
changing over night. 



118 IRISH POETRY 

The Irishman, James Usher, the Protestant 
archbishop of Armagh, made the chronology of, 
and gave dates to the books of the Bible, yet his 
uncle, Richard Stanyhnrst was a Catholic and a 
Jesuit. 

Their greatest poet, Shakespeare, lived and 
died breathing Catholicity. 

Every Catholic religious character he staged 
was put there with reverential deference to the 
ancient faith. 

Tennyson, the poet laureate of England, no mat- 
ter the altar he faced, was a member of the an- 
cient Church while writing of the Virgin Mother 
and the saints, and his laudation of the sacrament 
of penance in St. Simeon Stylites. 

Those brilliant minds that made the times of 
Elizabeth memorable were the fruitage of kindly 
ancient Irish culture, and the English protestant 
historian, Cobbett, describes how she paid us back 
in these words : 



IRISH POETRY 119 

"She could not harrass the Irish in detail, there- 
fore she murdered them in masses." 

Such are the words, not of an Irishman, but of 
a protestant historian and an Englishman. 

Along came, then, the short-lived Irish protes- 
tant parliament under Henry Grattan, in 1782 to 
1800, granted by England. 

Which displayed a narrowness that was due 
more to the religious miasma of the times than to 
their creed. 

Yet Catholic Irishmen, like Byron's modern 
Greek might console themselves by reflecting that: 

Their tyrants then. 

Were still, at least, their countrymen. 

This parliament was granted not because it was 
just 



120 IRISH POETRY 

But because Grattan bad 80,000 Irisb volunteers 
to back up bis request for Home Rule, and Eng- 
land had more than she could do with the Com- 
modore Barrys and 'Briens, Patrick Henrys and 
Montgomerys on this side of the Atlantic, com- 
manded by Washington. 

Not a very congenial or encouraging period for 
a young Irish patriot poet. 

In 1794 Moore entered Trinity College, Dublin, 
which had only the year before been opened to 
Catholics for the first time, and his ability in the 
classical languages gave promise of a brilliant 
future, and at 20 he published his "Odes of Ana- 
creon," which made him famous at that early age. 

Being full of energy he became the biographer 
of his distinguished countrymen, Richard Brins 
ley Sheridan, author of "The Rivals and School 
for Scandal," two gems, which outrival anything 
else in English comedy. 



IRISH POETRY 121 

He wrote the life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald 
and of his friend and admirer, Lord Byron. 

He also wrote a history of Ireland. 

Macaulay says that considered merely as a 
composition, Moore's Life of Lord Byron, pub- 
lished in 1830 deserves to be classed among the 
best specimens of English prose our age has pro- 
duced. 

''Lalla Rhook," an epic of Eastern life in its 
faithful portrayal of the thought, histoiy, tradi- 
tions, manners and even localities was regarded 
as marvelous, stamping Moore as a poet of rare 
genius and insight. 

So enraptured were the admirers of the pen- 
picture of this notable delineation of Eastern life 
that they said, in its rich and luxurious imagery 
the reader was so enveloped in the mystic atmos- 
phere of the East that he could easily imagine the 
rustle of Persian tapestries, the odor of the spices 
and even the smell of the sandal wood of that mys- 
terious land. 



122 IRISH POETRY 

Lord Byron was intensely and sincerely en- 
thusiastic over the reception it met with, not only 
in Europe, but in India, and wrote a few lines in 
rhyme to Moore, saying: 

' ' They tell me, Moore, can it be true, lucky man 
That thy songs are sung in the Persian tongue 
on the streets of Ispahan." 

Byron it was also who called him ' ' The poet of 
all circles and the Idol of his own" and this de- 
scription was absolutely and happily true of the 
position held by Moore among the most famous 
men of his time. 

But it is not as the writer of the "Odes of 
Anacreon," of "The Epicurean," of the "Alci- 
phron, ' ' or even of Lalla Rhook, though Irishmen 
think, that one of its books. The Fire Worship- 
ers, portrays their own struggle for freedom, no 
it is not for any or all these, but for his imperish- 
able Irish melodies, the emanation of Moore, the 
patriot, that we hold him in grateful and affec- 
tionate remembrance. 



IRISH POETRY 123 

''Byron declared that, "Moore's Melodies were 
worth all the epics that ever were composed." 

And yet were it not that, toward the end of 
the eighteenth century, two worthy gentlemen, 
Dr. Petrie and Edward Bunting, knowing the sub- 
lime beauty of Irish airs, began to collect and 
set down in rotation the national music of Ireland, 
these splendid airs might have been in the chaos 
of the time lost forever. 

To some of the airs collected by Petrie and 
Bunting, Moore began to write, and being a sweet 
singer, commenced to enchant his audience with 
his famous Melodies 106 years ago, in 1807 — and 
they have not only endured the century, but have 
remained as Samuel Lover wrote of Irish music, 
"beyond comparing" to this day. 

They have been translated into nine languages, 
and they have been surpassed in none if equalled 
by any. 



124 IRISH POETRY 

No poetic license, no halting phrases or patched- 
up limbs are found in Moore's poems or songs 
which flow as gracefully as an Irish stream in 
the twilight of a summer's eve, when Divinity 
seems to blend nature into a scene of beauty and 
repose. 

The bravery, courage and heroism of the race 
are poetically pictured in the "Minstrel Boy." 

A Scottish writer has said of the "Minstrel 
Boy" that it is the most perfect song in existence, 
owing to the blending of words and music and the 
placing of the long vowel sounds on the long 
notes — ^that is A as in fate not in fat; E as in 
mete not in met; I as in fine not in fin; as in 
old not in odd; U as in use not in us; Y as in style 
not in nymph. 

Roosevelt says that "Garryowen" is the great- 
est marching and fighting tune in the world. 



IRISH POETRY 125 

Robert Emmet forbade the writing of his epi- 
taph. 

But what could be written in such full respect 
to the injunction of his friend the dead patriot 
and yet so calculated to keep his memory immor- 
tal, as — Moore's 

Oh breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade 
Where cold and unhonored his relics are laid 

Sad, silent and dark be the tears that we shed 
As the night dew that falls on the grass o 'er his 
head. 

The legendary and authentic history of Ireland 
is enshrined in Moore's matchless melodies' — al- 
most complete. 

"Silent, Moyle be the roar of thy waters" 

Is built on one of the earliest legends of Irish 
literature. 

"The Fate of the Children of Lir". 



126 IRISH POETRY 

Who were condemned in the form of swans to 
the Sea of Moyle to await the ringing of the first 
Mass bell when the spell should be broken, and 
they returned to the human world. 

"Avenging and bright falls the swift sword of 
Erin" strikingly depicts the most famous tale of 
the Red Branch cycle of Irish epic romance, — the 
sorrows of Deirdre whose lover is slain. 

It was this romantic patriotic Music of Ireland 
as expressed by her bards, its sincerity reaching 
to heaven which was echoed back by the sound- 
ing-shield of justice that strengthened the heart 
and warmed the blood which was flowing from 
every vein of my native land. 

And which impelled Moore to sing 
''Forget not the field where they perished 
The truest the last of the brave." 
The splendid feats of Malachi and the formid- 
able Red Branch Knights are storied in 

**Let Erin Remember the Days of Old." 



IRISH POETRY 127 

The heroic military achievements of the mighty 
King, Brian Born, who vanquished the Danes are 
proudly sung in: 

"Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave". 

Nor was war Brian's only glory. He is just 
as renowned for his reign of peace, law, order, 
contentment and education, during which, it is 
said, a lovely and unprotected young lady heavily 
jeweled went through Ireland without molesta- 
tion will be remembered for all time, and Irish 
chivalry applauded by: 

"Rich and Rare Were the Gems She Wore". 

Woman in Ireland was ever honored and re- 
spected, there is no room there for Assuerus who 
tempts Esther and entices her to supplant Veshti. 

Marriage there is a sacrament for the man as 
well as for the woman, and its desecration is not 
tolerated. 



128 IRISH POETRY 



And if the civilization of a people is marked by 
the respect and honor its women hold, the Irish 
stand high in civilization. 

Moore was not only a great poet but he was, 
what was better a manly man. 

Before the keen and telling effect of his irony 
and sarcasm, when deserved, the most powerful 
in England shrank including the "Iron Duke of 
Wellington" and the Prince Regent (George IV) 
whom he called : 

"The Fat Adonis of Fifty". 

Which puts to shame the assertion that he 
"dearly loved a Lord". 

And marks him as one of the most independent 
men of his time. 

In a lecture here in Baltimore in 1847 the great- 
est literary genius which America lias produced, 
as well as the keenest, most impartial, but most 
merciless critic, Edgar Allen Poe, uttered these re- 



IRISH POETRY 129 

markable words: "It has become the fashion of 
late to deny Moore imagination, while granting 
him fancy. This is because the fancy of Moore 
so far excels the fancy of all other poets that 
many deem him fanciful only. 

''Never was a greater wrong done to a true 
poet. The lines describing a desolate lake in Don- 
egal, called 'Patrick's Purgatory' around which 
trammeled souls hovered, commencing with, 'I 
would I were by that dim lake' is one of the most 
imaginative poems in all literature. ' ' 

So said Edgar Allan Poe of Moore. 

And the "Biographic Generale" of France says: 

"Moore's poems have a sustained elegance which 
is not marred by an air of rudeness which runs 
through Bums". 

Tenderness, rich and brilliant imagery give 
them an enduring fascination. His poems are re- 
markable for their felicitous expression, their 
sweet musical flow and tender feeling, while gen- 
ial wit and humor add to their attractiveness and 
charm. 



130 IRISH POETRY 

Moore died in 1852 at the age of 73 years. Did 
I say died? No, his soul is as much in evidence 
today as when his body formed its tabernacle. 

The patriot never dies. 
For Cicero tells us, 

"That there is a certain separate place in 
heaven for those who have preserved, aided and 
ameliorated their country, where they may enjoy 
happiness in the presence of God to all eternity." 

The patriotic and religious never die, patriotism 
•and religion were motives strong enough to impel 
the Saviour of mankind to perform a miracle. 

For when the centurian sent to Jesus to ask 
that the servant who was dear to him and who 
was sick be made well. 

The messengers thought it all sufficient to state 
of the centurian: 

"For he loveth our nation", 
Emphasizing his patriotism 

"And he hath built us a synagogue," 



IRISH POETRY 131 

Accentuating his religion by Ms building an edi- 
fice to God. 

And indeed both qualities are twins, for the man 
who is religious is sincerely patriotic and the man 
who is patriotic is inately religious. 

1 will finish with two brief stanzas of the ode 
written for the centenary of Thomas Moore in 
this country, thirty-four years ago by another 
Irish poet, T. D. Sullivan: 

"Oh, Tara's hall may waste away 

The Shannon's source may fail; 
The mingled waters cease to play 

Through fair Avoca's vale. 
Loved Arran Moore may fade from sight 

But you will still endure 
In Irish hearts fresh, warm and bright 

Enchanting songs of Moore. 

Yea, even if our ancient race. 

In time should cease to be 
And if our dear old native place 

Should sink into the sea, 
The world would save from out the wave 

And hold the prize secure 
The harp you strung, the songs you sung, 

Our own immortal Moore." 



133 

AUTHORITIES QUOTED 

Arnold, Mathew — English poet and critic. 

Bible (31). 

Byron, Lord — English poet. 

Biography, General — of France. 

Bede, Venerable — English historian. 

Cicero. 

Cobbett, William — English historian. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo — New England scholar, 
author and essayist. 

Encyclopedia Brittanica. 

Ferguson, James — English historian of archi- 
tecture. 

Geminiani, Francesco — Great Italian musician. 

Gibbon, Edward — English historian. 

Grammaticus, Saxo — Danish historian. 

Green — English historian. 



134 AUTHORITIES QUOTED 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel — English lexicographer, 
poet and essayist. 

Key, Francis Scott — Author of "Star Spangled 
Banner. ' ' 

"London Times", The. 

Mantaigne. 

Macaulay, Thomas B. — English historian, biog- 
rapher and essayist. 

Maine, Prof. Henry Sumner — Professor of Law 
at Oxford. 

Meyer, Kuno — German Literatus. 

Morley, John — English essayist and miscellan- 
eous writer. 

Moreri, Louis — French biographer. 

Mozart, John Chrysostom — Austrian composer. 

Mosheim, Johan Lorenz — Protestant ecclesias- 
tical historian of Germany. 

Myers, Philip Van Ness — German historian. 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED 135 

Poe, Edgar Allan — American poet and critic. 

Reeves, Dr. William — English Literateur. 

Roosevelt, Theodore — American Literateur 
and statesman. 

Ruskin, John — English art critic. 
Sigerson, Doctor. 

Smith, Ernest — Of the Royal School of Mines, 
London. 

Spenser, Edmund — English poet. 

Taylor, Rev. Isaac — English writer. 

Tennyson, Lord Alfred — English poet. 

Willis, Nathaniel Parker — American miscel- 
laneous writer. 

Westwood, Prof. John Obadiah — English. 

Ware, Sir James — English. 

Wolfson, Arthur Mayer — English historian. 

Zeus, John Kaspar — German philologist. 



137 







139 



INDEX 

PAGE 



Adrian IV ; taught by an Irish professor 11 

Agnostics of Italy 116 

Aldhulf, King of East Angles 18 

Alemanni, of Germany 16 

Alfred the Great 57 

America, discovered by an Irishman 74 

"Anacreon in Heaven," O'Carolan's 98 

Ancestry, pride of 7 

Angelo, Michael 61 

Antiquaries, British society of 53 

Antrim, Round towers of 49 

Aphelion, Ireland glimmer in 13 

Arabian Sea 15 

Arch, unknown who invented the 42 

Architecture, Byzantine 44 

" Corinthian 41 

" Doric 41 

Egyptian 37 

" English, derived from Rome 48 

" Gothic, evolved by the Irish 44 

Greek 41 

" Indian 40 

" Ionic 41 



140 INDEX 

PAGE 

Architecture, Irish, the pointed arch 37 

" Jewish 38 

Persian 40 

Arnold, Mathew 74, 93, 94 

"Arran More" 131 

Art, Irish 27, 28 

Arthur, Celtic King of England 48 

Ash-leaf, Gothic Contour 61 

Askeaton Abbey, County I^imerick 54 

Assuerus 127 

Bards, O'Carolan the last of Irish 98 

Bede's history of England 18 

Bible, chronology of the, by an Irishman 118 

Biographic Generale of France 129 

Bobio, school of, founded by Columbanus 69 

Boru, Brian 18, 127 

Brehon Laws, foundation of Trial by Jury 20 

" " maintained their ground down to 

17th Century 21 

Brendan, early discoverer of America 74 

Brogue, no, with Gaelic Speakers 7 

Builders, Great Irish 49 

Burgundians, in South-Eastern Gaul 46 

Burke, Edmund 7, 83, 84 



INDEX 141 

PACtK 

Burns • _ . 129 

Byron, Lord 119. 122, 123 

Callanan, J. J 103 

Canaan, conquest of 39 

Canute, Danish King of England 57 

Canute II, Danish King of England 57 

Carey, Mathew, publisher 98 

Carter, John, British Antiquary 53 

Castledermot Abbey, County Kildare 55 

Celt's, Artistic Eminence 52 

Celts, Irish, taught the English Art of Rhyme 92 

Characteristics, Different national 5 

Charlemagne, got the Irishmen, Albin and Clement 

to teach 71 

Charles, the Great 46 

Cicero 130 

Clan System a pure democracy 19 

Clare County 18 

Cloaks, Irish woolen , 32 

Clonmacnois, Church of 29 

Clovis united the Franks 47 

Cloyne Abbey, County Cork.. 55 

Cobbett, historian 1 18 



142 INDEX 

PAGE 

Cologne Cathedral 62 

Columbanus educated France 69 

Columcille converts King of the Picts 66, 68, 69 

Congrave, William, poet 110 

Conrad III 77 

Constantine XIII 45 

Constantinople, capture of 45 

Corinthian Architecture 4 1 

Counties, Ireland's, when named 19 

Cromlechs of Ireland 37 

Chronology of Bible made by an Irishman 118 

Cross of Cong 29 

"Culdees" 93 

Cyrus, tomb of 40 

Dalcassiens 18 

Danes held Scotland and Normandy 59 

Danes overran all England 57 

Dante knew of the Irishman Fursa's writings 78, 1 16 

Davis, Thomas Osborne, poet 101 

Dearbhorgil, wife of O'Rouark 22 

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire... 8 

Deirdre 126 

De Vere, Aubrey, poet 108 



INDEX 143 

PAGE 

Dome, unknown to the Egyptians 38 

Donegal Abbey, County Donegal 55 

Druid Hill Park, in which is nature's Gothic 61 
Dungal, the Irishman, consulted by Charlemagne 

for his knowledge of astronomy 72, 73 

Dyes, Irish renowned for their 34 



Rdmond, King of England, shot to death 57 

Egfird, King of the Northumbrians 18 

Egyptian Pyramid 37 

"Eileen Aroon" 97 

Elizabeth, Queen 1 17 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, New England scholar 79 

Emmet, Robert 125 

Emotions, caged in English language 9 

Empires, Mighty, not essential to greatness 14 

England's attempt to name the Gothic the English 

style : 53 

England submerged by Anglo-Saxon corsairs 47 

England christianized by the Irish before St. 

Augustine's time 66 

English Bishops were of Irish consecration 67 

English Characteristics 5 

English Language, megre and mawkish 8 



144 INDEX 

PAGE 

Erigenia, John Scotus, distinguished Irish scholar. 82 

Esther 127 

Etherial nature of Irishman. 6 

Ethelfrid, King of the Mercians 18 

Euphrates, the river 15 

Export, Ireland's 36 

Family in Ireland recognized as unit of society 21 

Ferguson, James, historian of architecture 52 

Ferguson, vSamuel, poet 104 

"Fire Worshippers," a portrayal of Ireland's 

struggle 122 

Fitzgerald, Edward, poet, 105 

Fitzgerald, Eord Edward 121 

Fort of Arranmore 50 

France, educated by Columbanus 69 

France, partitioned in 10th Century 23 

Franks, united by Clovis 47 

Free Masons, who built Catholic churches 62 

Friezes, Irish, in France, passing the Rhine 33 

Fursa, St., goes to England to teach. 70, 77, 78, 91 

Gael, one of the oldest people 15 

Gaelic Ideas versus English Idioms 9 

Galileo 75 



INDEX 145 

PAGE 

Gall, St., patron Saint of St. Gall in Switzerland 71 

"Garryowen," greatest marching and fighting tune 124 

Geiseric, yields to the prayer of Leo the Great 47 

Geminiani, P'rancesco, accomplished Italian 97 

George IV 128 

German Characteristics 5 

Gertrude, Abbess of Nivelle 91 

Gibbon, Edward, historian 8 

Gobban Saer, the builder. 49 

Goethe's Faust 87 

Goibniu, ancient Irish metal god 21 

Goldsmith, Oliver, poet 115 

Gothic Arch 21, 50 

Gothic style links architecture wnth religion 48 

Gothic style evolved from the Irish mind 52, 60 

Gotofor, County Waterford man, a great scholar 70 

Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore 51 

Grammaticus, Saxo, Danish historian 68 

Grattan, Henry, and the Irish parliament 119, 120 

Greek Characteristics 5 

Greeks, ignorant of the arch . 42 

Griffin, Gerald, poet. 113 

"Gurth and Wamba" 7 

Guthrum, King of England 57 



146 INDEX 

PAGK 

"Handel's Oratorio," produced and first played in 

Ireland 88 

Hannibal 45 

Hardicanute, Danish King of England 57 

Harefoot, Harold, King of England 57 

Helen, the Grecian lady 22 

Henry VHI 117 

Heptarchy. England's 18, 48 

Hereditary Class, in Ireland no 20 

Hirara, King of Tyre 39 

Holy Cross Abbey, County Tipperary 54 

Huns invaded Rome 16 

"Iliad," translated from I,atin to Gaelic 82 

Indus 15 

Innisfail, song of 16 

Ireland's church patrons were the names of her own 

holy men 51 

Ireland's National Legislature 900 years before 

Christ 17 

Ireland's intellectuality unaffected by fall of Roman 

Empire 65 

Irish Characteristic 5 

Irish conception of law 17 

Irish stone-masons 62 



INDEX 147 

PAGE 

Irish tribal system barred the way of the danes 58 

Irishman's contribution to government, art, archi- 
tecture, etc 16 

Irishman patron Saint of Canton of Glarus 72 

Irishmen rapidly Americanized 24 

Irishmen educators of Germany 63 

Irishmen enobled labor 61 

Iron Duke of Wellington 128 

Italian Agnostics 1 16 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, (Scotch Western Isles 

journey) 67, 83, 110 

Kells, book of 27 

Key, Francis Scott, author "Star-SpangledBanner" 98 

Kilian, St., christianized Bavaria 71 

Killaloe, County Clare 18 

Kings of Ireland, four provincial 17 

Knowles, James Sheridan 10 

Lace, Irish - 32 

"Lalla Rhook" 121 

Leather, beautiful Irish, gift fit for poet 33 

Lee, Annie, of Dublin 99 



148 INDEX 

PAGE 

Limerick Chalice 29 

Limerick Cloak 32 

Lombards destroyed by Charles the Great 46 

London Bridge 49 

London "Times" 35 

Lothair, King of Kent 18 

Lover, Samuel, poet and novelist Ill, 123 

Luxeuil, school of, founded by Colunibanus 69 

Macauley, historian 49, 97, 121 

Mahony, Rev. Francis (Father Prout) 114 

Mahon, Brother of Brian Boru 19 

MacDurnan, book of 34 

MacHenry, Dr. , after whom is called Fort McHenrj' 99 

MacLuchair, arch poet of Erin 90 

MacMurragh,Dermod,who tried to play "Paris" 19, 21 

MacPherson, tried to steal Ossian from the Irish 91 

Madder, the plant 34 

Maengel, the Irishman, taught music in Switzer- 
land 92 

Magna Charta, stolen by England from Ireland 20 

Magnus III, King of Norway 58 

Mangan, James Clarence, poet and linquist 112 

Manufactures, Irish, deliberately destroyed 34 



INDEX 149 

PAGE 

Maine, Sir Henry Sumner 20 

Maryland's Governor and Senators 18 

Marianus, founded monasteries on the Danube 76 

Marks, St., in Venice 44 

Mantles, embossed Irish cloth 32 

Marriage in Ireland indissoluble 127 

McCarthy, Denis F., poet 106 

McNathmore, Aengus, the builder 50 

Medes and Persians 15 

Mediterranean, coast of the 16 

Mephistopheles 87 

Meyer, Kuno, German literatus 96, 97 

"Midsummer Night's Dream," from Irish fairy 

folk-lore 11, 93 

Mile, length of an Irish, more accurate than 

England's 74 

Mineret, unknown to the Egyptians 38 

"Ministrel Boy" 124 

Montaigne 10 

Mount Vernon Place M. E. Church, Baltimore 62 

Moreri, French biographer 75 

25. 98, 100, 116, 120, 123, 



Moore 

' 124, 125, 126, 128, 130, 131 

Morley, John 93 



150 INDEX 

PAGE 

Mohammed, of Malwa 40 

Mosheim, protestant ecclesiastical historian of 

Germany 28 

Mozart, German composer 97 

Mural Decoration 31 

Murry ' s Grammar 7 

Nationalities, small 13 

New Zealander, Maculey's 49 

Nile Embankment 37 

Nineveh's Buildings 40 

Norway's Necromancy 58 

O'Carolau, Turlough, last of the Irish bards 98 

Odoacer, King of Heruli 45 

O'Glacan, privy councillor to King of France 83 

O'Reilly, John Boyle 102 

O'Shaughnessy, Thomas A., artist 31 

Ossian, poet of ancient Erin 91 

Osberga, Queen of England, mother of Alfred the 

Great 81 

Oswald, King of Northumberland, got Aidan to 

convert his subjects 70 

Oxus, river of Asia 15 

Pagans, from Tyre, built Solomon's Temple 39 

Palagius, the subtle 71 

Palestine 1 6 



INDEX 151 

PAGH 

Parnell, Thomas, poet 109 

Parret, river 57 

Paris, the Trojan gentleman 22 

Patois of "Gurth and Wamba" 7 

Patron saints of ancient Irish churches always 

Irishmen 51 

Patrick, St.. 17, 86, 90, 91 

Paul's, St., church in London 49 

"Peggy Bawn " — Fair Margaret 16 

Persian Gulf 15 

Petri, Dr., collected the Irish airs 123 

Penmanship, illuminated 27 

Phoenician Ships 16 

Poe, Edgar Allen 128, 129 

Poetry 85 

Pompeii, architecture of 43 

Presbyterian, First, Church, Baltimore 62 

Protestant, Grace, Episcopal Church, Baltimore 51 

Punjab, five rivers of the 15 

Queen Osberga, mother of Alfred the Great 81 

Red Branch cycle of Epic romance 126 

Reformation, in England. 117 

Reeves, Dr. 50 

Richard 1 7 

Rhine Province 16 

Richard II 33 



152 INDEX 

PAGE 

Rinuccini, papal legate 31 

"Rivals, The " 10 

Roman Characteristic 5 

Rome indebted to Greece for her architecture 42 

Romans, great road builders 42 

Roosevelt, Theodore 1 24 

Roman Empire, effect of fall of 65 

Round Towers, of Ireland 49 

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam 105 

Ruskin, John 53, 54, 56 



Saxon fond of table d'hote 5 

Saul, in disguise 88 

"vSchool for Scandal" 10 

Schools of Malmesbury and Lindisfarne founded by 

Irishmen 67 

Sedulius' (shiel) "Carmen Paschale " first great 

christian epic 89 

Scotland .. ^ 1 

Schurz, Carl, learned English from Goldsmith's 

works 1 15 

Serge, Irish, in Naples, Coma, Genoa, Bologna and 

Florence 33 

Shakespere 10, 11, 118 



INDEX 153 

PAGR 

Sheridan, Richard Brindsley 10, 107, 120 

Sigbert, English King, pleased at Fursa's coming 

to England 70 

Sighers, English King, with his people, turned 

apostate.._ 68 

Smith, Ernest, of the Royal School of Mines, 

London 30 

Smith, Stafford, composer 98 

Solomon's Temple, built by pagans 39 

Spanish Ships 16 

Sparta, men of 1 

Spenser 5 1 

Sphinx. Egyptian 38 

Stanyhurst, Richard 1 18 

"Star-Spangled Banner," set to an Irish air, 

"Anacreon in Heaven" „ 98 

Stone-masous, Irish 62 

"Stones of Venice" 53 

Stained Glass Windows, Irish 31 

St. Augustine, hated English barbarism. 66 

St. Benedict, outdone by Columbanus 69 

St. Foillan 91 

St. Fursa, christianized the East Angles 70 

St. Mel's Church, Chicago 32 

St. Patrick's Church, Chicago 32 



154 INDEX 

PAGB 

St. Simeon Stylites 118 

St. Ultan 91 

Sullivan, T. D., poet 131 

Susa, buildings of 40 

Table d'hote, Saxon fond of 5 

Tara Brooch 29 

Tara Brooch, exhibited in London 30 

Taylor, Rev. Isaac, on names of rivers 79 

Temple, Solomon's, built by pagans 39 

Temple of Vesta, built by Corinthian Greeks. 43 

Tennyson 1 1 8 

Theodoric, ruler of Italy 46 

Thomond and Desmond 19 

Thorgils, Norwegian leader 58 

Treaty of Limerick 98 

Usher, James, Protestant Archbishop of Armagh ... 1 18 

Vandals, dispoiled Rome 47 

Veshti 127 

Vesta, temple of 43 

Virginius, the tragedy 10 



INDEX 155 

PAGS 
Virgilius (Ferghil) taught the existence of the 

antipodes 75 

Visigoths, from North of Black Sea in possession of 

Southern Gaul and Spain 16, 46 

Vulcan, Grecian iron god 27 

Vulcan, temple of _ 37 

Walpole, Horace, British antiquary 53 

War, all Europe in, except Ireland 48 

Ware, Sir James, "Treatise on Irish writers" 75 

Washington, George 1 20 

West wood , Professor 28 

Willis, American poet 17 

Zeuss, German philologist 94, 95 




RESIDENCE OF 

MICHAEL J. REDDING 

885 PARK AVENUE 

CORNER OF HOWARD STREET 



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